Indiana Acacia Campaign FAQ

Two primary projects members of the Indiana Acacia Building Corporation (IABC) deem essential for the long-term viability of the house: (1) Upgrade systems, including heating, air conditioning, plumbing, and electrical, and (2) Renovate the bathrooms from the ground up.

Secondary projects include refreshing the common areas with a modern fraternal look and feel, from the formal living room into the dining room and down to the Kibler Room in the basement. We also intend to create a true bike room and reorganize the personal storage spaces in individual rooms.

We do. The house is in good shape, but its age is apparent. The high caliber students arriving at IU each year demand high caliber living spaces. Acacia’s narrow footprint doesn’t allow us to offer larger rooms and more open spaces now common in Greek houses. We can counterbalance that, however, with systems improvements and with other improvements in personal storage space, technology, and the look-and-feel of the common areas.

Those radiators still bang all winter, BTW. One room is still oven-hot, the next is still freezer-cold.

While suite-style living is one of the options in new Greek houses, what many of us know as cold dorms hasn’t disappeared. Discussions with active members living in the house revealed that our third-floor cold dorm is highly valued as a place for quiet, undisturbed sleep. That is good news, since the cost of eliminating cold dorm space in favor of suites throughout all three floors is beyond our prospective resources.

Density in the cold dorm will be reduced for 2020-2021, and other safety measures will be implemented as needed. Nearly every other Greek house on campus, even new ones with suites, has sleeping spaces for four to 12 students. Add to this the existing communal spaces for bathrooms, lounges, and workout rooms, and we don’t see the Acacia cold dorm as something relatively unsafe.

Of course, when required due to ongoing or new wide-spread health issues, we will have to be smart about all living arrangements in the house.

The suspension is a big jolt to all Indiana Acacia. It is already prompting much thinking and discussion among the housing board members and the wider alumni group.

But the reasons for the renovations have not changed: The asset we own needs the investment in order for it to be relevant in the contemporary student housing environment. HVAC and bathrooms are the big issues. Updating the look and feel is lower priority but still important.

And though it is tough to see the future right now, many of us are committed to bringing the Chapter back starting in 2024. It must be a different kind for Chapter – and organized in a different way. But it is coming back. Acacians will once again occupy the house.

None of us working closely with Indiana Acacia, and with the Office of Sorority and Fraternity Life (OSFL), believe IU wants to shut down the Greeks. What University leaders care deeply about is molding a Greek culture that befits the world class institution IU has become. That means a lot of things from back in the day are no longer tolerated. It doesn’t matter how any of us experienced (or even now relish) some of those things. They are not tolerated. Period. Today’s Indiana Chapter of Acacia must operate differently than the Chapter did in earlier years.

IU officials are acting assertively toward individual students and Greek organizations who abuse drugs and alcohol, who assault women and men, who demonstrate a lack of respect for all members of the IU community, who haze, and who put others’ physical and mental health at risk. As Indiana University alumni, that is something all of us ought to support.

You may not realize it: The Wreckage has been distributed 11 times since 2017. We distributed this in email and printed form. The printed version was mailed twice in 2019-2020 and a second one for 2021 is out in September.

Communication is improving quite a lot. Other ways to stay in touch:

• Indiana Acacia Alumni on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/indianaacacia/
• Indiana Acacia web: http://indianaacacia.org
• Indiana Acacia leadership team: http://indianaacacia.org/leadership
• Indiana Acacia email: info@indianaacacia.org
• The Wreckage newsletter comes in an email version every 3-4 months. In 2019-2020, we also distributed two printed versions. The second The Wreckage of 2021 is coming in September. So communication is improving pretty dramatically in recent years.

To make sure Indiana Acacia has your contact information, go to myAcacia. Start here: https://www.omegafi.com.