One group of students will be painting the town a new shade of red this semester.

Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity has finally settled into its new house at 747 Comstock Ave. After living in three separate houses along Ostrom Avenue last year, the fraternity is excited to finally reside in one living space.

‘It’s awesome,’ said Frank Yanofsky, house manager of TKE, and a junior accounting major. ‘We have everyone around now. We had three houses on Ostrom. Now we have 24 people in here.’

Finding a new place to live, though, did not come so easy for the fraternity.

The residence was formerly known as the RedHouse, a place where housing was traditionally available to students with an arts and theater background. The RedHouse was known for its longstanding history within the Syracuse University community as an alternative to normal campus housing.

But when RedHouse students were informed last semester that TKE would be moving in, some of them let out their frustrations.

‘The RedHouse (residents) fucked it up,’ Yanofsky said. ‘They spray-painted the walls, and it took a long time (to fix).’

The fraternity has been working hard trying to remodel the house a bit to include some of its own personal touches.

The house needed to have some cleaning and renovations over the summer, said Josh McIntosh, the associate director for administration and assessment. TKE spent one week in June and another prior to move-in week to attempt to reorganize the house.

Now the outside of the house has been painted and cleaned, as well as all the rooms, and there will be new carpeting next week, Yanofsky said.

‘They like having their own property,’ McIntosh said.

TKE is looking forward to having one central place on campus so it can continue expanding as an organization.

‘We expect the fraternity to keep growing,’ Yanofsky said. ‘It definitely attracts more people. We noticed that just from the first week.’

Yanofsky is confident that TKE will be more of a close-knit community with the central location near campus.

‘We were all separated,’ Yanofsky said. ‘Now everyone knows where we are.’

As for the RedHouse students, they are adjusting to living in separate places.

‘We’re all doing well and have found new living arrangements,’ said Carl Cowan, a senior information studies major.

Cowan said that being on campus without the strong presence of the RedHouse can be difficult at times.

‘It’s different,’ Cowan said. ‘It’s a house that had history. It’s weird not being a part of something you thought you were a part of.’

Although they are upset that they cannot remain in the RedHouse, the former residents are not angry at TKE for moving in.

‘There’s no bad blood between TKE,’ Cowan said. ‘We understand they needed a place to live.’

Published on September 9, 2004 at 12:00 pm