Prior to attending the 2025 Annual Meeting on April 5, 2025, at the Sheraton Hotel, you may have found Beta Pi brothers spending the day exploring the campus, visiting the Penn Bookstore, taking in the Penn Museum, and/or enjoying a cheesesteak for lunch. Now it was time for business.
The meeting this year had a particularly unpleasant subject of discussion: Beta Pi undergraduates were unable to fill the Chapter House for the next academic year and could not sustain the fraternity at Penn. Therefore they surrendered the Beta Pi Charter to Pi Kappa Alpha Inter/National Fraternity (Memphis). What was going to happen to the chapter house? What can the alumni do to bring Beta Pi back to Penn?
Due to the circumstances, the meeting was well attended by concerned alumni. There were approximately 30 alumni in attendance. Although unable to attend, other alumni were able to view the meeting and participate via ZOOM link Cloud HD Video. Alumni as far away as California were able to join the discussion and express their opinions. In attendance were:
Buddy Altus ’80 Fred Bailey ’70 Mark Berlyn ‘77
Joel Catania ’71 Morty Cohen ’65 Dan Darkes ‘68
Joe DiMauro ’75 Joel Friedland ’74 Jerry Herman ‘72
Chawner Hurd ’80 Basil Jackson ’13 Jeff Kaufman ‘80
Bill Kenney ’69 Stephen Leventhal ’67 Harvey Mackler ‘72
Dan Maldonado ’15 Rich Myers ’69 Lawrence Orans ‘80
Mark Perna ’68 Paul Reszutek ’76 Stephen Robinson ‘74
Scott Rothbort ’79 Bill Scott ’76 Bora Sila ‘80
Richard Sussman ’69 Ross Weiner ’80 Todd Wieseneck ‘72
Bruce Wolfson 71 Paul Zaentz ’69 Luke Baber ’22 (undergraduate)
In attendance via ZOOM were:
Dan Keefe ’06 Adam Michaels ’97 Kaden Stenger ‘19
David Edman ’73 Nick Chimicles ’67 Joel Levine ’70
Mitch Karig ’76 Eric Morgenstern ’81 Richard Schorr ’72
Introductory remarks were made by Beta Pi Alumni Association (BPAA) President Ross Weiner. He then turned the meeting over to BPAA Vice President Bruce Wolfson. Brother Wolfson has long been active in Memphis and is personally knowledgeable on how much aid and assistance Memphis is able to provide to its undergraduate members. He was closely aware of what was happening with the undergraduates. Brother Wolfson provided a summary overview of how this all came to occur. He then gave an enthusiastic and well-deserved introduction of Basil Jackson who had desperately tried to engage and unify the undergraduate members into working to keep Beta Pi alive on campus.
Brother Jackson is on the Alumni Advisory Board for Beta Pi Chapter. He went into a more detailed tale of what went wrong. He explained that membership was discouraged and backed away from recruiting new members. Many of the brothers, who were committed to live in the fraternity house in the next academic year, withdrew their intention to live in the house. Memphis was asked to help Beta Pi. Memphis, who had always looked upon Beta Pi as one of their best chapters, was willing to help. They offered to send recruiters to Beta Pi if there were at least 10 Beta Pi undergraduate brothers willing and able to help with recruitment. Unfortunately, less than a handful were willing.
When asked how much dues were to be a member, brother Jackson replied that the seniors stopped paying dues. Then the underclassmen balked at paying dues. Many said they could not afford the dues. In an attempt to keep them active, dues were prorated. Brother Wolfson explained what that meant. As an example, meaning this was not the actual numbers, he said, “We had 21 dues paying members that only ten were paying”.
Jeff Kaufman asked whether it is better to try to resurrect the chapter immediately or allow Memphis to do a recolonization. Brother Wolfson said Memphis is wildly successful at recolonizations but a recolonization may not be possible to happen for four years. Brother Jackson said that he was told by Penn, that the house would only be held for PiKA for two years.
Bora Sila asked whether our housing costs are in line with other fraternities and Penn dormitories. Brother Jackson replied that our rents, that are established by Penn, are higher but we should have been emphasizing to prospective members the increased benefits of joining a fraternity such as a better social life, creating lifelong friendships, etc. Brother Wolfson expressed his opinion that our chapter house is at a disadvantage when compared to the new dormitories that Penn has continued to build. Penn’s new dormitories are like apartments. They are single-living units with a personal bathroom, kitchen, and air conditioning.
All brothers at the meeting were made aware of the history of the Chapter House. Before becoming part of Pi Kappa Alpha, there existed an independent fraternity at Penn named Alpha Phi Delta. The brothers of Alpha Phi Delta purchased the building at 3900 Locust Street. Alpha Phi Delta later became a chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha, a national fraternity, but ownership of the house always remained in the name of Alpha Phi Delta. In 1968, the University of Pennsylvania seized ownership of the house by eminent domain and razed the building to make it part of the “High Rise” west campus that contained brand new dormitories built like apartment buildings. Rather than pay for the 3900 Locust Street property, Penn offered Beta Pi attached buildings at 3916-18 Spruce Street. The two buildings were combined. After an extensive renovation, the 3916 Spruce became the new home of Beta Pi. The University of Pennsylvania offered to purchase 3916 Spruce St. and allow Pi Kappa Alpha to inhabit the building. By Penn being the owner, Beta Pi would not have to pay real estate taxes. The building was then sold to Penn for $1.00 with the provision that the building was to be used for dormitory purposes only. When and if the building was no longer used as a dormitory, Penn had a choice to either revert the building ownership to Alpha Phi Delta or pay Alpha Phi Delta the current appraised value of the property.
Under these terms, Beta Pi lived and thrived for over 50 years at 3916 Spruce Street. Then it happened…The University of Pennsylvania mandated that sophomores must live in University Housing that included all their dormitories except fraternity houses. Despite the fact that Penn owned the building, managed the property, set the rents, collected the rents arising from the house, and that the Agreement signed by them and Alpha Phi Delta states that 3916 Spruce Street was to be a “dormitory subject to all the rules and regulations…applicable to its other dormitories”, Penn declared that fraternity houses were not part of University Housing.
Penn also initiated a policy that all sophomores must be part of the Penn dining plan. As a result, without sophomores living in the Chapter House (historically sophomores comprised most of the inhabitants in the house), and without sophomores eating their meals at the house, Pi Kappa Alpha had extreme difficulty filling the house with enough residents demanded by Penn to offset operational costs for the house, and could not sustain an eating plan. The kitchen was closed. In addition, Penn started billing annually all fraternity and sorority members at Penn a significant fee for belonging to a fraternity or sorority.
Long discussions followed as to what can be done. It was the general consensus that if Memphis was permitted by Penn to recolonize, the 3916 Spruce Street location was too large and the same problems that Beta Pi has now will again resurface. It was decided to form a committee, Richard Myers and Ross Weiner acting as chairmen, to negotiate with Penn on the future of the building. If ownership of the building reverted to Alpha Phi Delta (highly unlikely), the building would be sold to provide a source of funds to purchase a smaller building for a PiKA recolonization. If Penn wants to use the building for purposes other than a dormitory, the committee would negotiate a price for Penn to pay.
As to Pi Kappa Alpha memorabilia currently in the Chapter House such as composites, ledgers, records, ritual items, etc., Jeff Kaufman has volunteered warehouse space. Unfortunately, the alumni have to obtain a key to the building. The Alpha Phi Delta Corp. and Beta Pi Alumni Association meeting was concluded and the brothers left to get ready for Founders Day Dinner.
