With the loss of a home comes a wealth of new opportunities for members of the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity.
"It's a really great thing. Now we literally have a budget to work with and flexibility to support the undergraduate chapter, whereas in the past we were broke and were constantly in debt trying to fix everything, like the house's pipes and sprinklers," said Albert Hakim, a 1990 alumnus who became a member of Phi Sigma Kappa in 1986. "Before, we couldn't support scholarships or rush because we had no money. But now we've paid our debt, and we're really able to offer the proper support."
The University's chapter of the fraternity was created in 1959.
Hakim said Construction Management Associates, a private developer in New Brunswick, recently purchased the Phi Sigma Kappa house on 32 Union St. on the College Avenue campus, which was built in the late 1800s and bought by the fraternity in 1962.
The owners of the house, the Phi Sigma Kappa Alumni Association, sold the house for a substantial sum, said Jim Horvath, a 1968 University alumnus who became a member of Phi Sigma Kappa in 1964. Both Hakim and Horvath are members of the fraternity's Board of Trustees.
The house was closed down more than a year ago due to maintenance concerns, and the developer plans to demolish it and develop a new kind of modern housing structure, Hakim said.
"Through our heyday in the '80s and '90s, the house needed significant repair and unfortunately banks don't lend money to fraternities very easily," Hakim said. "Within the last three to four years, it got to the point where the house needed to be completely renovated. It's unfortunate it has to go. It's been in New Brunswick for a long time."
Horvath, a retired attorney, said the alumni association is going to invest the money they received for the house to support the undergraduate brothers of the fraternity and their rush programming. Starting at the end of the semester, they will supply a $1,000 scholarship to each of the top six GPA earners in Phi Sigma Kappa every semester, for a total of $12,000 a year. Another goal is to purchase a new fraternity house in the future, he said.
Phi Sigma Kappa President Robert Cavezza, a Livingston College senior, said the last time members lived in the house was two years ago, and the seven current members live off campus without a common place to live. But he would like to see membership increase before they find a new house.
Cavezza said the fraternity was founded by scholars like the editor-in-chief of The Daily Targum, the University student body president and members of varsity athletics. He said his ultimate goal is for Phi Sigma Kappa to be an organization of student leaders.
"They were looking for a different fraternity experience on campus and everything they saw wasn't what they thought it should be, so they decided to start their own," Cavezza said. "My goal is to bring us back to that point and have top student leaders [as members]."
Within the inter-fraternity council, members of Phi Sigma Kappa have the highest GPAs and received two awards last semester from the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, he said.
"I think this is a really good time to be part of Phi Sigma Kappa," he said. "It's a good period of growth."
Hakim said although he is sad to see the house go, the funding the fraternity now has is something positive, and mementos kept in the house from the 1800s, such as antique postcards, had managed to be saved.
"The house was very rich in artifacts before we owned it," he said. "It was full of amazing architectural pieces, like the fireplace mantle. It was incredible."
Hakim said during his time as a member, 24 people lived in the house. There was a full time cook who served three meals a day to 70 people, a full bar in the basement and typically 600 people would show up to Phi Sigma Kappa parties.
"I lived there for two years, and it's really sad to see it go," Horvath said. "I have fond memories of that place."
Hakim said what separates Phi Sigma Kappa from other fraternities at the University is that it was one of the first fraternities on campus to admit black members in 1969. It is an international fraternity founded in 1873 at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and has had members from countries across the world, such as Japan and Germany, Hakim said.
"We wanted to form something new, something different at Rutgers that wouldn't be prejudiced," Horvath said. "I think [Phi Sigma Kappa] maintained that philosophy, and that's what makes it different."
