Frank ThomasStaff Writer———The Ohio University Board of Trustees approved the purchase of the currently vacant Sigma Chi residence at its meeting last Friday.
The house, located at 15 Park Place between Baker University Center and the presidential residence, will be converted into a new international center.
Michael Angelini, associate vice president for finance, said the university expected to pay $700,000 for the property and would use a $2 million gift from an anonymous donor to make the purchase.
Owned by The Sig House Company, an arm of the Sigma Chi National Fraternity, the property is valued at just under $600,000 by the Athens County Auditor.
According to Angelini, the initial asking price for the house was more than $1 million, but the university was able to negotiate the price.
The $1.3 million remaining from the original gift will fund all necessary renovations, he said.
“The house could, to say the least, use some work,” he said.
Real estate negotiations began in July and ran simultaneously with the university’s courtship of the anonymous donor, Angelini said, adding that, though he was “kept in the loop,” the donor did not “drive” the negotiations.
According to Angelini, both the exact price paid for the house and its future purpose were detailed in the gift agreement between the university and the anonymous benefactor.
Harry Wyatt, associate vice president for facilities management, said that while it is planned as an international house, the specific offices, occupants and functions of the new facility had not been decided.
The project is “very much in its infancy,” he said.
The Yamada House has served as OU’s international center since 2003 when it was renovated by the university and rededicated under its current name.
Wyatt could not provide specifics, but said Yamada House would still be in use.
Sigma Chi was officially suspended from campus in April 2003 for numerous infractions including “false report of emergency” and “unauthorized use of alcoholic beverages,” according to OU Judiciary Records.
Angelini said the board’s approval of the purchase was only the first step in the process.
The deal still needs to be approved by the Ohio Controlling Board, a committee responsible for approving state agency spending, he said, adding that he is confident that the purchase will be approved when it is scheduled for consideration Nov. 17.
The house has been “mothballed” and an “eyesore,” he said, adding “the university had wanted to purchase the property for a long time.”
“This is a great opportunity to improve the neighborhood,” he said.ft980608@ohiou.edu
Reader Comments
"The house has been “mothballed” and an “eyesore,” he said, adding “the university had wanted to purchase the property for a long time.”"
Wow really? Could this be why the fraternity that occupied the house was singled out among other fraternities since it was situated almost on the heart of the new college green student area? Is it just a mere coincidence to me that right around the time Baker center was being built and preparing to open that suddenly that specific fraternity was cracked down on by OUPD and OU administration?
I am no fan of frats or sororities and all my friends know it, but come on don't BS us. The university did its normal bully real-estate practices, destroyed a frat house in the middle of prime real estate for the campus and now has basically barred anyone from inhabiting the building by suspending the fraternity, purposely and knowingly decreasing the building's property value so OU can gobble it up with university funds.
Even if they paid under market value for the property this is in complete counter intelligent and counter productive to the financial state of the university! We are in the middle of a horrible hiring freeze, open positions are being filled by piling on the jobs of 2 or 3 people onto 1 person and without a pay increase, and now we are dropping another 1 million to buy an old house by Baker Center? Makes no sense to me!
Isn't this the house that smells funny? I swear, every time I walk by there's a wonderful whiff of something absolutely putrid seeping out of this house. What a great purchase.
Southeastern's right on. They wanted to get rid of the frat in the heart of campus. "Unauthorized use of alcohol?" That describes nearly every frat. They shut it down as soon as they had the Baker plan, waited until all of the members left, then quietly bought it up.
Of course, as students, until you ban together and stop paying tuition, you have no power to do anything about this.
outdoor and southern, do you even know how the university found out about Sig Chi violations? Do you know the process in which the university pursues allications? my guess is no. btw, way to stereotype about the greek on campus. im sure that if i made the same outlandish claims against a racial or gender group on campus, that i would be condemned to death. wise up, both of you. life is not a conspiracy.
"im sure that if i made the same outlandish claims against a racial or gender group on campus, that i would be condemned to death."
By group do you mean formal organization or just students of a race or gender? I hope the former because people aren't born into frats.
indeed, denimandginham; i should have been more specific. however, putting all greeks in a little box and making generalized statements about them is not right either.
Conspiracy or not, what is interesting to me is that they are going to spend $1.3 MILLION...RENOVATING...A HOUSE...IN ATHENS!
What in God's name are they going to spend $1.3 million dollars on in a renovation? Surely, they could get by for far,far less. That is unless they plan to knock it down and rebuild, but even then it is an awful lot of money. But, if they can con a donor into funding it, then by all means.
To some of the previous users that are commenting on a "conspiracy" especially the first one referencing the "new baker center". I was a student from 93-98 .... and i will say that if memory serves that frat was banned about half my tenure in college. They had one infraction where they tied someone up put in the back of a uhaul and got caught by the PD. (we can argue the problems of this). But from my understanding even back then was that they ALWAYS seemed to get into more trouble than most and their saving grace back then was that Ping was an alum of SigmaChi (geez i date myself having Ping as my first president)
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