Tau Delta Phi National Fraternity has opened an investigation into the vandalism that wrecked the former Phi Delta Theta house at University Park over the weekend.
Penn State-based brothers of Tau Delta Phi had been renting the century-old brick house, 240 N. Burrowes Road, from the Phi Delta Theta alumni group.
‘We don’t know a lot of the exact details’ involved in the vandalism, said Pete Sasso, a vice president with Tau Delta Phi National Fraternity. He said the national organization is working with local leaders of Tau Delta Phi and with the Penn State administration ‘to identify the vandals and what was broken.’
Sasso said Wednesday that Tau Delta Phi brothers have vacated the former Phi Delta Theta house, as their lease was scheduled to end early this week. They’re now looking for new housing, Sasso said.
Dan Finer, the president of Tau Delta Phi at Penn State, said Wednesday that he had no comment. He referred a reporter’s inquiry to Sasso.
The former Phi Delta Theta house, a campus landmark at Pollock and North Burrowes roads, was left in shambles over the weekend. Many windows had been broken, graffiti marred interior walls, and at least one lighting fixture had been wrestled from a first-floor ceiling.
Trash was strewn throughout the house and outside. Beer bottles lined a patio between the house and a sand volleyball court. A large kitchen knife was left in the front yard.
Inside, the place smelled like stale beer and rotting food, said Bernard Cantorna, an attorney representing the Phi Delta Theta alumni group. He said it’s taking at least three days to clean up the mess.
Already, he said Wednesday, workers have filled two Dumpsters with the garbage that the former tenants left behind.
‘I can tell you that we had to use a shovel to clean the place out, and I can tell you that the tenants didn’t move their crap out,’ Cantorna said. ‘Nothing was cleaned up. Nothing.’
He said the Phi Delta Theta alumni group plans to charge the former tenants for clean-up costs. Asked whether the group may pursue other claims or damages, Cantorna said the organization is ‘still too busy cleaning up to figure out what to do’ next.
Meanwhile, the Penn State Interfraternity Council is collecting preliminary information about the damage. It plans to address the matter when the council fully reconvenes for the fall semester, IFC President Max Wendkos said.
If members of a Penn State fraternity were to vandalize a rented house, they could face repercussions under IFC bylaws, Wendkos said. He said there’s no precedent for such a situation at the IFC.
Separate of the vandalism, the former Phi Delta Theta house is scheduled to be sold to Penn State on Friday for $1.75 million. University trustees approved the deal back in March, ending a years-long conflict between Penn State and the former Phi Delta Theta chapter.
The international Phi Delta Theta parent organization suspended the Penn State chapter in December 2007 after reported violations of a drinking policy. In March 2008, the international body formally expelled the local membership.
Because the local fraternity no longer had national recognition, Penn State argued that it could no longer recognize the group, either. The university filed a lawsuit in November 2008 to buy back the property and the house from the fraternity’s local alumni corporation.
Penn State cited an original agreement between Phi Delta Theta and the university, signed in 1905. According to that document, the university provided Phi Delta Theta with the land for the fraternity, but retained the right to reclaim the property if the fraternity were to dissolve.
The legal action was dropped when Penn State reached an agreement with the fraternity group, though some students had recolonized the house as a Tau Delta Phi chapter and lived there in apparent violation of borough code and university rules. At Penn State’s last count in April 2009, nearly 25 students were still living there, renting from the Phi Delta Theta alumni group.
Most recently, Penn State had given the remaining occupants until the end of the spring 2010 semester to vacate the house. Final-exams week ended May 7; spring graduation ceremonies were held last weekend.
University spokeswoman Lisa Powers said Penn State has not finalized any plans for the Phi Delta Theta property. At one point, about six years ago, the university had eyed the real estate as potential green space.
