By NICK BUDD
Hays Post
Students, alumni and administrators associated with the Greek Life community at Fort Hays State University participated in a town hall meeting to discuss the idea of a new Greek housing complex.
The proposed complex would be placed along the U.S. 183 Bypass, north of Gustad Drive, on the FHSU campus. The complex would include three stories divided into four separate units, making room for four different organizations. Each unit would come with a dedicated front door, six private bathrooms, a laundry room, a common area and a kitchenette. The proposed units come in two different sizes for the organizations; two 21-bed units and two 28-bed units. The entire complex features a common area at the front, which could double as a meeting space for the organizations. The new unit would be placed next to a bigger building, which would house the living and learning communities.
“Recruitment is going to be one of the biggest benefits for the fraternities and sororities,” Jacob Ternes, coordinator for Student Involvement and Greek Life said. “The location will place them right next door to nearly 400 new freshman on campus.”
The new complex will be staffed with one graduate assistant from the Higher Education Student affairs program. That person will be accessible to all of the students in the facility. Each organization would also nominate one member to serve as a residential assistant. That person would serve their representative organization and would have to meet the hiring requirements associated with an RA in other residential halls on campus.
“This concept was brought up out of an evaluation of our Greek community that we entered into with the North American Inter-fraternity Council, Panhellenic Council and all of the other Greek organizations about five years ago,” FHSU President Edward Hammond said. “They made a series of recommendations to the university of what we needed to do if we wanted to improve and grow our Greek system and make it more vital. Improving the housing was one of those recommendations.”
The new concept comes at a price for the seven current Greek organizations on the FHSU. Each chapter must make an estimated capital investment of $190,000 for a 21-bed unit or a $250,000 investment for a 28-bed unit. Each organization would be able to pay the amount up front or through a yearly contract. If an organization chooses to buy into the proposed plan, it would be required to maintain occupancy. If it were not able to maintain occupancy, it would either have to buy out the remaining space or allow the university to fill the remaining spaces with other students.
“We’re talking about it being a 20-year buy-in as opposed to a lifetime buy-in.”said Mike Barnett, vice president for administration and finance. “The reason for that is so that after the bonds are paid off, it will be time to renovate the complex, and then we’ll go through this whole process again.”
According to Ternes, the cost of rent for each student would be relatively similar to the amount for students that are living in other on-campus residential halls. The amounts noted would be subject to inflation.
“A side effect of this is that we’ll have the opportunity to build as a community,” Ternes said. “We’ll be close together, you’ll see each other more often and, in return, you’ll be closer to those who you see on a day-to-day basis.”
The university is looking to put out a bid for the project by this summer, with hopes of an August 2016 completion.