The former Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity house will soon bear new Greek letters, as the UCLA chapter of Phi Delta Theta plans to lease the Gayley Avenue house in September.
The UCLA chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha, which was established in 1991, stopped operating as an official fraternity in January because of financial problems. Members of Pi Kappa Alpha, however, are currently staying in the house.
Phi Delta Theta will hold spring rush at the house and will officially take over in September, said Nick Ryan, a fourth-year political science student and one of the founding members of the UCLA chapter.
“We decided to take over the house as we wanted a place we could all call home, and we think living together will help foster a greater sense of brotherhood among our members,” Ryan said.
Ryan added that in previous years, the members of the fraternity were able to live together in apartments, but the experience of living in a single house is something the brothers look forward to.
Phi Delta Theta was rechartered in May 2013 as a registered Interfraternity Council chapter. The fraternity has a nationwide alcohol-free housing policy and the UCLA chapter will also follow the policy, Ryan said.
Phi Delta Theta has 56 members and hopes to recruit about 10 new members during spring rush at the new house, Ryan said.
The fraternity signed a four-year lease, said Tom Thomas, a UCLA alumnus and member of the chapter advisory board of Phi Delta Theta. They will pay about $25,000 per month for the Gayley Avenue house, which has a 41-person capacity, Thomas said.
Thomas added that Phi Delta Theta had an unofficial house two doors down from the new house on Gayley Avenue when he was an active member in the early 1960s.
“It will be a very important transition for the brothers and I think the experience of living together is very important for the members of the fraternity and the alumni and all the brothers are very excited to have a house again,” Thomas said.
The new housing for Phi Delta Theta may be a temporary change, depending on Pi Kappa Alpha’s finances in coming years.
Matthew Li, president of Pi Kappa Alpha’s UCLA chapter and a third-year geology/engineering geology student, said the fraternity plans to recover financially in three years, and the Pi Kappa Alpha housing corporation will still manage the property while Phi Delta Theta occupies it.
“This is not a goodbye to the house; we are still managing the property and we will be back,” Li said.