SAE fraternity house to be complete in July

Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s new house on Jordan Avenue is approaching completion.
Former chapter president Jarrett Smith said the construction is ahead of schedule and should be completed in July.

Associate Executive Director for SAE Financial and Housing Corporation Greg Somers said members will be able to start moving in August 23.

Only 68 members will be living in the house. Somers said they wanted a number that was maintainable.

“Occupancy reflects the maximum number of rooms that would fit in the space we had available,” Somers said. “It was the most we could afford to build based on construction cost.”

The chapter has more than 100 active members. Smith said not everyone who wants to live in the house will be able to.

“We figured who could live in the house based on seniority and involvement,” Smith said.

Somers said more than half of the bedrooms in the new house are singles because that is where most of the housing trends are moving.

Smith also said a lot of work went into getting the new house approved.

Alumni donated more than $1 million as of March 31. In addition, the chapter had to prove they could sustain the house, Somers said.

“We had to legitimize what we were doing,” Smith said. “We had to go back to the basics and follow our 12 core values.”

Smith said alumni asked about their GPA, involvement and leadership. He said this year SAE had the fourth-highest GPA within the Interfraternity Council.

“We’re not just here to party and drink,” Smith said. “We are real fraternity men.”

The new house is modeled after the Jordan Crest Gables, which was the SAE house at IU until November 1969 when it caught fire, Smith said.

Afterward, the chapter moved to someone else’s old house, but the men never had the same connection to it, Somers said.

In 2006, the chapter’s second house caught fire and was ultimately demolished.
Somers said the new house will have a full fire sprinkler system, fire rated doors and a centrally monitored fire alarm system.

SAE Nationals did a survey of alumni from the 50s to 90s of what they wanted the new house to look like. They then hired an architect from Atlanta to draw architectural renderings based on old photos.

Somers said when they took the drawings back to the alumni, they loved it.

In addition, IU had to sign off on the house appearance, the sight plan and the façade.
Smith said the whole campaign is “rising from the ashes,” since both of the chapter’s past two houses had fires.

“The phoenix has a lot of symbolism for us,” Smith said. “We are starting new and building something again. Witnessing the house being built has been surreal.”

What’s in the new house?
26 single rooms
18 double rooms
2 triple rooms
Cost: $4.5 million
12 TVs as large as one 80-inch
11 bathrooms for members
4 bathrooms for guests
Source Greg Somers