Future use of FIJI house still unknown

The house could be used by another fraternity or sorority in the future. Two weeks after the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity forfeited its charter -- ending an 85-year history at 3619 Locust Walk and a 117-year history as a Penn fraternity -- the fate of the former FIJI brothers' house remains unknown. University Provost Robert Barchi said yesterday that he has received several proposals for potential academic uses of the space and expects those proposals to be evaluated "within the next three or four weeks." "[The space's] future use is still unclear," Barchi added. Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs Director Scott Reikofski said earlier this month that OFSA had petitioned for the facility to be occupied by another fraternity or sorority come fall. "We would like to keep it as a Greek house," Reikofski said. But Barchi did not directly say whether the house -- which is currently occupied by the former FIJI brothers under individual agreements with the University -- could end up being occupied once again by members of the Greek community. He said that until the University -- which owns the house where FIJI violated alcohol and risk management policies at an alumni dinner March 20 that ended in the death of 26-year-old 1994 College graduate and FIJI brother Michael Tobin -- determines a future use for the house, the facility will not be rented this summer or fall. Though Reikofski had originally contacted Barchi about renting the facility to an outside group for the summer, Barchi denied the request, saying the house, built specifically for the FIJI fraternity in 1914 and now a Philadelphia historical landmark, will not be rented this summer because it might need renovations that would make it suitable for future uses in the fall, Executive Assistant to the Provost Linda Koons said. Koons, who is in charge of receiving formal proposals for space use, said Wednesday that no one had formally proposed anything to the University's space allocation committee regarding the house's fall occupancy, adding that people were instead directly contacting the provost's office. The University's space allocation committee makes recommendations based on formal proposals and then sends those recommendations to the president, provost and executive vice president for final evaluation on the handling of facilities, according to Koons. The former Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity house, also on Locust Walk, faced a similarly uncertain future last year after the national Phi Sigma Kappa organization shut down its Penn chapter, citing repeated risk management violations as well as pornographic material linked to the fraternity's World Wide Web page. University officials have since renovated part of the house -- located on 3615 Locust Walk -- and reopened it as the Veranda, a temporary student center.