Set Up a Fund for a New ZBT Chapter
Louis Posner
I suggest setting up an escrow fund for that specific purpose.
Instead of giving money to Muhlenberg directly, put the money in a ZBT fund.
Let the fund grow every year, collect interest, and get more donations every year.
If you depend on Muhlenberg to do it, it will never happen.
If you think, stroking Muhlenberg's ego by contributing a Chair, sorry, you are naive.
Brothers united must make a pledge not to contribute one dollar to Muhlenberg until there is a new Frat House on campus.
Eventually, the fund will have the purchasing power to get a new ZBT Fraternity House.
J. Brett Studner
I like Louis’s thoughts.
I stopped contributing when they flattened the house during winter break (2000?) and did not even notify the trustees.
Thought my son was going to the ‘Berg last year so I helped with my 30th ‘Berg Reunion but he did a 180 and went to Lafayette.
My wallet is closed to them.
One thing, even if we were to create a “ZBT” fund, I would want a commitment from the school and us to have a game plan if I were to contribute or ask others to.
J. Brett Studner, CIC
Vice Chairman
Odell Studner | Expect
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Ralph Bellafatto
I don’t see how we could effectively make such contributions before berg committed to letting zbt back on campus. The only way possible would be to donate to ZBT national and ear-mark the funds for a specific purpose which might never occur.
Perhaps making a pledge of future donations to ‘berg—conditioned on zbt’s return might be a more effective incentive.
I think I summarized the circumstances of the house being knocked down before but perhaps I did not circulate to the entire list.
In 1996, after one of the brothers was engaged in some drug dealing, and had some unsavory dealings with Allentown locals that culminated with an assault/injuries in the house—and subsequent criminal charges, zbt national pulled the local charter and alpha nu was suspended from operations on muhlenberg’s campus. Thereafter, the college unilaterally and without any notice to the alumni corporation tore the house down despite the existence of a 99 year lease for the property. (the alumni corp built the house with its own loan/money in the 1960s, on land that the college leased to them for 99 years for nominal rent.)
Litigation ensued (the alumni corporation of alpha nu vs. Muhlenberg college) which was eventually by a settlement agreement in 1999 that provided that the college would pay the alumni corporations attorney’s fees (it did) and ‘berg also agreed to replace the zbt house with “comparable” housing in the event that zbt ever re-colonized in the future.
I have the agreement somewhere, but I personally doubt that berg will; 1-ever allow zbt back on campus; 2- live up to the agreement without further litigation.
Additionally, when we closed the alumni corporation account, $5,303.20 was given to national’s permanent endowment fund for the future benefit of a re-colonized zbt at berg. So there should be seed money if and when it ever happens.
Just my 2 cents.
Ralph J. Bellafatto
Bellafatto Law Office
4480 William Penn Highway
Easton Pa 18045
610-923-8144 (fax)
Ra...@Bellafatto.com
Louis Posner
Consolidator Webfares
Last time I visited Muhlenberg 4+ years ago the physical “fraternity houses” were serving different purposes from when I graduated in 1990. ATO was being used as office space for the teaching and administrative staff, PKT was a dorm for students, SPE I really couldn’t tell one way or another, TKE was boarded up & we all know our house ZBT is completely gone. The actual status of the fraternities didn’t look promising at that time – how things have changed since then I don’t know….
I have rarely gone back to Muhlenberg since the house was torn down. I feel a huge disconnect with the house being gone. For me College and my memories are mostly about my experiences at ZBT and my friends and brothers from Alpha Nu.
“Talk” of generating a fund or promising them money I don’t believe is enough to sway the administration. They already have a full time student task force calling every alumni (check your caller ID ) that has ever graduated from Muhlenberg (Greek & non-Greek). If we are really serious about this lets look at this as a sales experience... them being the new client.... ZBT offering ideas and opportunities which they wont want to ignore and money cannot buy. We need to show how they can benefit from the ZBT alumni and how we are willing to re-invest in the college – maybe I am naïve but I think for this to work we need to sell them on an “idea” not a check…
Below are some random ideas - they do not require us to donate money - rather time. Granted it is sometimes easier to write a check versus giving up a day or some of your “billable time”.
Guest Speaker / Expert in a field
Between all of us we have many different fields of knowledge and expertise - PR, Media, Accounting, Finance, Medicine, Human Resources, Entrepreneurs, Attorney, Sales, Real Estate, Marketing, Theatre & so many other areas. To be able to offer the administration someone to come in on a regular basis as a guest speaker or do a 1 hour Q&A for a specific class is something which should hold tremendous value. Real life experiences being shared with their students can be priceless. My favorite class was an evening Business Law class where a local attorney was the teacher and gave us real life experiences versus reading from the text book.
Job Placement / Job Fair:
Many colleges and universities have large job fairs and recruitments for the graduating class. Smaller colleges have a greater challenge as you cannot force or pay a company to attend. Another area possibly where we can offer to be more proactive or offer a commitment to Muhlenberg would be to attend these each year. At the very least it gives us the opportunity to visit the campus and maybe hang out with other attending fellow fraternity brothers you haven’t seen in awhile (while billing it as pro-bono work?)
Internships (during the school year or over the Summer)
As we know these tend to be unpaid in most cases. Basically you can get some free labor while giving a student real hands on experience of the future work place. These can be offered as a ½ to 1 day per week & also as summer internships for course credit (which I did). Depending on where we work/live there may be limitations for some - however making this commitment again shows the College our commitment.
I am sure if we each have a few cocktails over the weekend (as I have had tonight) we could come up with some other creative ways to offer something to the college with the hopes of creating a return on our investment – getting our house and ZBT back (I know I am may be kidding myself here but I hope it sounds good)….
Regardless of how or if any of this plays out - I look forward to seeing some familiar faces and friends from the past which I haven't seen in a long time with the primary goal of sharing some stories, food and drink (they better have a few kegs ! ) with all of you... If that is the only thing we achieve on Sept 8 – I believe it was worth the trip....
Klaus Biber (’90)
Louis Posner
While all of the Muhlenberg Frat houses (or what is left of them) are right on campus, that is not the case with many other colleges or universities, and this has no effect on whether they are recognized by the Greek Community. For example, Drexel University in Philadelphia has a large Greek Community and all of the Frat Houses are off-campus, but near the University. An off-campus Frat House for upper classmen does not mean it is a "den of iniquity."
Of course, money is not the only contribution one can make, but "money talks." It has been 12 years since Alpha Nu was bulldozed down and turned into a parking lot. Absolutely nothing has been done. The only way to get something done, is to have a segregated ZBT fund not under the control of Muhlenberg, that ZBT Brothers United stop contributing any money to Muhlenberg, but instead contribute to the ZBT Fund, continue the collection efforts for years, and then later tell the Muhlenberg Administration, "hey, if you want to re-built the ZBT House that you bulldozed down, we have a fund to support it. But if you don't, we will buy or build a house near the campus, and that will be the new Alpha Nu ZBT House."
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