AMHERST — The University of Massachusetts is urging the town to bar the unrecognized Theta Chi fraternity from operating at its North Pleasant Street house, arguing it violates town zoning, as protests at the house continue over an alleged assault there last month.
In a Nov. 2 letter to town officials, Shelly Perdomo-Ahmed, UMass vice chancellor for student affairs and campus life, wrote that the university is concerned the house at 496 North Pleasant St. continues to be used to house UMass students even though the university no longer recognizes the fraternity.
“Given the impact on the University and the Amherst community, it is important for us to work together to develop an appropriate path forward,” she wrote.
Four days later, on the night of Nov. 6, masked protesters banged on the doors and windows of the house, and Amherst police dispersed the crowd.
The protests followed an Oct. 23 incident in which a student who lives at the house allegedly put a female student in a chokehold. Amherst police charged him with strangulation, a felony, and misdemeanor assault and battery. He pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Eastern Hampshire District Court on Oct. 27.
Although the house sits steps from the Isenberg School of Management, next to the former Newman Center building that now houses the Campus Pantry and across from other UMass academic buildings, it is private property under the jurisdiction of the town’s police and fire departments.
Theta Chi has been suspended by UMass since 2025. Its members must still follow the student code of conduct, but the fraternity may not advertise on campus, hold events or programs at UMass, or work with recognized student organizations. It may describe itself only as an Amherst-based chapter, unaffiliated with the university.
“In short, Greek organizations that lose or lack university recognition, such as Theta Chi, are not, and cannot hold themselves out as, ‘related to’ the university,” Perdomo-Ahmed wrote.
UMass said that matters because town zoning allows a “fraternity or sorority building, social dormitory or similar use related to Amherst College, Hampshire College or the University of Massachusetts.” The university contends Theta Chi does not qualify. It says the fraternity has no special permit, management plan or site plan on file with the town, and that the town should not rely on the bylaw’s “similar use” language to let it operate.
“As of this writing, the town has not meaningfully responded to the university’s concerns regarding the town’s regulation of these organizations once they lack a relationship with the university,” Perdomo-Ahmed wrote.
She asked the town, at a minimum, to prohibit Theta Chi and any similar organizations that have lost university recognition from operating “unless and until the organization complies with the Zoning Bylaw requirements for operation pursuant to Section 3.326.”
Town Manager Paul Bockelman said the house, like other fraternity and sorority houses, is inspected once a semester, and both the police and fire departments pay close attention to what happens there.
“The town is very concerned about behavior of fraternities, and what’s going on there,” Bockelman said.
District 2 Councilor Lynn Griesemer said she and other councilors have questions that need to be answered, and that UMass students have contacted councilors about Theta Chi in recent weeks.
Councilors plan to raise those questions Monday, likely during Bockelman’s town manager report. Council President Mandi Jo Hanneke said the meeting will be a chance to learn more about the town’s role.
UMass has 44 Greek organizations, though only eight are lettered fraternity and sorority houses recognized by the university.
Theta Chi’s international headquarters in Carmel, Indiana, said in a statement that it is aware of the criminal complaint against the house member.
“The actions and behaviors described in the complaint are abhorrent and contradict Theta Chi’s ideals,” spokesman Dalton Fischer said. “The member has been placed on suspension pending the completion of the fraternity’s expulsion proceedings.”
The national chapter also offered support to the victim.
“The fraternity stands in support of the affected woman, and the local chapter is cooperating with law enforcement and its investigation. The International Fraternity has also initiated its own investigation.”
The organization said that if the member is found guilty, it will support the maximum penalty allowed under the law, and it urged anyone with information about the alleged assault to contact police.
Larger protests took place at Theta Chi in 2021 after a woman alleged she was drugged and sexually assaulted by a member. During one demonstration that lasted nine hours, two people were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct, inciting a riot and failure to disperse, and a person was injured after being struck in the head with a bottle.
Theta Chi has owned the 1-acre property, assessed at $1.29 million, since 1933; the house was built in 1935. That predates the campus being renamed the University of Massachusetts in 1947 and its expansion in the 1960s and 1970s.
UMass and the UMass Building Authority have bought other private properties within or next to campus. In 2020, the university bought the Newman Center from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield for $12.5 million. In 2007, it paid $2.5 million for the five houses of “Frat Row,” home to four fraternities and a sorority at 387 to 401 North Pleasant St. The houses were later demolished, and the 2-acre site remains an open lawn.
That acquisition came after the properties were mentioned in a master plan in the early 1990s, with discussions starting around 2003 and then negotiations in earnest in 2006.
At one time the property was considered part of the Gateway Redevelopment District that would have better connected the university to downtown, but that never moved forward in the face of opposition from neighbors.
