After only a short time at Cornell, 25 displaced Tulane University students have been evicted from their living quarters at the vacant Theta Chi fraternity house on North Campus.
According to Tulane junior Greg Verlander, who is living at the house, the students were told yesterday by a Theta Chi alumni representative that they had to vacate the house by 5 p.m. on Sunday because of legal issues that could not be worked out with Cornell.
“Theta Chi wanted Cornell to manage the house even though the rent money went to Theta Chi,” Verlander said. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“Cornell thought that it had negotiated an agreement that made sure that the use of the house was available to students,” said Tommy Bruce, Cornell’s vice president for communications and media relations. “We were surprised, having reached a gentleman’s agreement, that the fraternity had sought to change the terms of the agreement.”
“In exchange for help, we were willing to extend our bursar system to collect rent,” Bruce said. “Cornell will provide support to the students to help them find housing facilities.”
“It seemed Theta Chi wasn’t coming through,” said Tulane junior Kevin Juengst.
However, Juengst said that he appreciated the help Theta Chi was able to give.
“They were nice enough to let us live in the house for two weeks,” Juengst said.
The students believe that Cornell is doing a good job working out the issues.
According to Verlander, they were given packets of information about other housing options at a meeting with Dean of Students Kent Hubbell ’67 and will be given the use of a moving truck this weekend.
“[Cornell] has been pretty nice about it,” said Juengst.
“It is unfortunate what happened, but I am grateful for everything Cornell has done,” Verlander said. “It sucks, but you just gotta deal with it,” he added. “Cornell has been a great experience so far.”
A representative from Theta Chi could not be reached for comment in time for publication.
Archived article by Eric Finkelstein
Sun Managing Editor