"If you have done nothing wrong, you have no reason to fear this."
Right.
USF (University of South Florida) and some Greek organizations may be heading for a legal battle over a lease amendment that would allow University Police to patrol inside fraternity and sorority houses in the Greek Village. Greek organizations have been told that if they do not sign the amendment, they will be given 18 months notice to vacate and that their charter status at USF could be affected.Get ready to man the barricades.
Housing corporation members from the USF chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon said they will not sign the lease amendment and will challenge USF in court if they are given notice to leave the Village.
[...]
"If we are handed an 18-month eviction notice, we will exercise whatever legal remedies are available to us under the master lease," said Ray Seaford, legal counsel for the Sigma Alpha Epsilon's housing corporation.
Chris Acevedo, chapter president of Beta Theta Pi, which has not signed the lease, said the chapter has held off from signing based on legal advice. For former chapter president Kris Kattleman, the measure runs counter to the ethos of Greek groups.
"My organization prides itself on self-governance; that amendment infringes on that principal."
The measure, known as Amendment 1, would allow UP to enter the common living areas of houses in the Greek Village, but not individual rooms. Tom Kane, director of Residence Services, said this would put the Village in line with other campus residence complexes, where UP can patrol the lobby and corridors. Greek organizations, however, say the measure violates the privacy for which they negotiated when drawing up the lease in 2002 and are unhappy that USF is attempting to unilaterally impose this change.
[...]
Seaford also said the measure may be unconstitutional, a view shared by Becky Steele, regional director for the ACLU, who said USF's intentions raise serious concerns.
[...]
"If you ask any fraternity and sorority what they stand for, it's philanthropy. That's really cool; that's very admirable," Kane said. "Brotherhood, leadership -- they'll throw a million adjectives and adverbs and all at you, but if you say, 'Do you want to be dry?' (They say,) 'Oh no, that'll kill the whole organization.' Well then, why isn't alcohol somewhere in those top 10 words that this is what it's all about?"
[...]
One fraternity that has already signed the amendment is Sigma Phi Epsilon.Nevertheless, chapter president Matthew Papa said the measure could hamper Greek organizations struggling to fill their house. [...]
"It hurts Greek life," Papa said. "We've had all these issues with filling the houses. The appeal is slowly waning with (stuff) like this."
We noted that according to the HQ web site, the chapter does not have an A&VC president. That raises the question of whether they are well represented in their negotiations with the University.
