For Big-C, Acacia is home

The Acacia fraternity may no longer be a presence at the University, but the chapter's house is still being used. Six members of the BiCultural InterGreek Council now live in the house at 38th and Walnut streets. Big-C President Floyd Houston said yesterday that the nine bedroom house can hold a maximum of about 11 or 12 people. The current residents are members of a variety of Big-C fraternities and sororities. "The house is not yet being utilized to its full potential," he said Jeanette Melendez, a College junior and member of Sigma Lambda Upsilon, is one of the students living in the house. She said the house is not full is because the University did not decide to give the house to the Big-C until May, the very end of the semester. "It was really hard to get people together to talk about" living in the house, she said. Most people who would have been interested in living in the house had already signed off-campus leases, Melendez said. She was able to live there because she was released from her room assignment in High Rise East. Melendez describes the experience of living in the house as a "great opportunity." She said everyone in the house knew each other before they moved in, but since the Big-C organizations do not have houses as other fraternities and sororities do, they were in "an environment in which we normally wouldn't talk to each other." "Now we can," she said. The house still has the Acacia letters on the front, but Melendez said they will be replaced with letters of some of the Big-C groups. Melendez added, though, that she is not sure whether the house will serve more as a residence or common meeting area for the Big-C in the future. "The people in the house and Big-C need to decide what the house should be," she said. According to Houston, the house will serve as both. Future Big-C meetings will be held in the house. Also, a homecoming reception for Big-C alumni will take place at the house after the football game against Princeton on November 6. Houston said he isn't sure if the University is just "renting" the house to the Big-C, or if the house might become a permanent residence for the entire Big-C or one of its groups. Next semester, two more people will move into the house, Melendez said. And when students in the Big-C's fraternities and sororities are looking for housing for the next school year, they will know that the house at 38th and Walnut streets is an option. "I think we will have enough people" living in the house next year, Houston said. He knows the University might take the house away if not enough people show interest in living in the house. Houston said the University "saw an opportunity to ease tensions by giving the Big-C a house," and this should not be the only time the University does something for the Big-C. Melendez said she is thankful to the University for giving the Big-C the house, but hopes the University plans to do more for the Big-C. "We want to make sure the University has us in mind for long term planning," she said. She cited the University's oft-mentioned plans to diversify Locust Walk as an example. She said the University should include the Big-C in such plans and let them know about it well in advance. "We don't want something at the last minute all the time," she said.