After losing their personal chefs and having their commercial-grade kitchens closed for two months, Fraternity Quad residents’ kitchens were reopened near the end of October.
Prior to this semester, three fraternities located on the Frat Quad — Psi Upsilon, Alpha Delta Phi (ADP), and Sigma Chi — had professional-grade kitchens staffed with a chef who would make meals exclusively for the brothers, regardless of if they lived in the house.
However, with the switch to the University’s self-operational dining model, dining programs across all campuses came under financial scrutiny. According to an interview with University Spokesperson Sara Miller in August, the staffed fraternity kitchens were identified by Dining Services as not being economically sustainable.
“The aggregate funds generated from the Fraternity Meal plan left each kitchen in deficit year after year.” Miller said. “The shortfall was spread to other facilities on campus to absorb.”
Sam Klein stands in the ADP kitchen.
As of a few weeks ago, both ADP’s and Sigma Chi’s kitchens have reopened — albeit with reduced equipment.
Representatives of both fraternities said that they had no knowledge of the timeline for the renovations or, during the two-month closure, when they would be able to use their kitchens again.
“I honestly found out the kitchen was open because I came down here [to the basement] and I noticed the door was open,” said junior Kache Morris, who serves as ADP’s Chapter Steward.
ADP and Sigma Chi both have kitchen funds established to help pay for equipment if it were to break.
ADP’s fund was established by their alumni some time after they sold their on-campus house back to the University, Morris said.
The ADP fund, which prior to the gutting of their kitchen contained $86,496, is now being used to help pay to replace the University-owned equipment that the school repossessed during renovations.
“We’ve used it to buy these three tables, cleaning supplies, spices, and cooking utensils,” Morris said.
So far, the chapter has spent nearly $8,000 to replace equipment that they lost post renovations.
According to Morris, the school told ADP that the account, which is controlled by the University, will stay open as long as there is money in it, but no new funds can be added.
“It’s been all right,” Morris said regarding the recent renovations. “The most frustrating thing is dealing with facilities. It’s been very frustrating that we just don’t know timelines of anything.”
Morris explained that originally, ADP wanted to purchase food with the funds, but the school refused to allow it, saying that they wanted the chapter to buy the food from the University dining at Hillside rates.
Sigma Chi is in a similar situation.
According to their president, junior Peter McCole, the chapter was given vague communication from the University last spring indicating that their kitchen would be closed and their chef laid off.
In the fall, at the start of the renovations, McCole said he saw a glimpse of what was happening:
“When we first got here, [the kitchen] door was open, but it shouldn’t have been, it just was because Facilities had been in here. The ceiling was collapsing here because [they removed our] walk-in fridge … and it was supporting the ceiling.”
McCole explained that their chapter kitchen fund was also set up to pay for broken equipment. After the equipment was removed by the school, the fraternity had to negotiate with the University to regain access to the money so it could be used for its intended purpose.
According to McCole, the University had originally seceded $10,000 to the kitchen fund account. Over many years, undergraduates had paid into it using their meal plans, and eventually the balance grew to around $70,000–$80,000.
“Finally we have access to [the account]. But again, it’s through the school. It’s one of the things where we have to write what we want and have it get approved,” he said.
Prior to the renovations, Sigma Chi had an industrial deep fryer, a full flame grill, a flat top stove, eight burners, and a walk-in fridge, among other things. Now, they are left with a single stove and oven, sinks, and a normal sized fridge.
However, McCole explained the school’s need to remove the commercial equipment now that it has assumed a self-operational model.
“A lot of the things that they had in here were industrial kitchen stuff that needs to get inspected and approved every year and the school doesn’t want to do that.”
Despite the kitchen being open to use, facilities had also left an assortment of unusable equipment and trash that still needs to be removed, including a disconnected industrial dishwasher.
McCole explained that along with the kitchen, part of the chapter culture is gone.
“It sucks, we used to have dinner here [in our basement] every night … and everyone would come down here at the same time … now it’s literally like a glorified laundry room.”
Additionally, the school repossessed the ice machine, snack cart, food-serving stations, and the soda fountain, which also provided filtered drinking water.
Currently, there is now only one spigot in the house which McCole says offers drinkable water, that is located on the second floor in a small kitchenette along with a microwave and a fridge.
“It sucks to lose the kitchen, but I’m more upset with the lack of communication and transparency that we’ve had with the school.”
“It’s pretty clear that the fraternities are becoming alienated in the school administration,” McCole said. “They’re trying to kill fraternities here.”
