City Says Party’s Over for Cal State Fullerton Frat

FULLERTON — The scuffle on Cal State Fullerton’s “Fraternity Row” started over a woman. Before long, gunshots were fired, windows smashed, and a fraternity some liken to “Animal House” had once again infuriated the neighborhood.

That incident in April and others--including allegations of an attempted rape in August and 25 complaints to police about loud parties since mid-1995--have landed Tau Kappa Epsilon in the deepest trouble of any fraternity in campus history.

Last month, the city Planning Commission revoked the fraternity’s permit to operate at its rambling house on Teri Place, the street five other fraternities also call home.

Neighborhood outcry about Teke, as Tau Kappa Epsilon is known, has spurred a growing sentiment among city and university officials that Frat Row is out of control.

“Once they get drinking, things get out of hand. They throw beer cans in their yards, they urinate in their yards, parking is a real problem,” commission chairman Paul Simons said of Teke and the other fraternities.

“To me it was, enough is enough,” he said. “Something had to be done. A decision had to be made.”

Fraternity members say they’re being targeted unfairly.

“I’m not going to say we’re angels,” said Lou Regla, one of 18 students living in Teke house, where a Christmas tree strung with beer cans adorned the living room. “We’re 18- to 24-year-olds. We’re a group of young individuals learning. But I think it’s unfair. I think it’s gotten out of control the way the public outside the frat looks at us.”

Aided by the pro bono services of a Teke member who is an attorney in Irvine, the fraternity is appealing the commission’s decision to the City Council, which will hear the matter in January.

University and city officials say they are not singling out Tau Kappa Epsilon or trying to destroy the fraternity system. But they acknowledge they want greater control over an area that’s been a problem for years.

Since November, university officials have been working with city leaders, police and residents to craft tough new guidelines for fraternities and sororities.

Guidelines may include limits on the number of parties fraternities can give and on who can be invited. University- or city-imposed sanctions are under consideration if rules are broken.

“There is a systemwide issue here that the university has to take an active role in--there’s a problem with fraternities living in the community,” said Ryan Alcantara, assistant director for Greek life and student development at Cal State Fullerton.

While less than 10% of the 24,000 students here are members of the Greek system, parties at frat houses long have been an important part of social life at the university.

Robert McMurry, Teke’s lawyer, said city officials and university administrators are exaggerating the problem.

“They’re distorting the hell out of it,” he said. “What is going on is there have been problems with the so-called fraternity row for 20 plus years.”

“Someone at the university has decided that enough is enough, and they want to get rid of fraternities,” McMurry said. “And because we have had problems in the past, they are going after us first.”

But residents of the neighborhood around Teri Place, largely students themselves, say that living near “Frat Row,” has become unbearable in recent years.

“Sometimes, I have to walk home late. And one day, I was walking with a friend past Frat Row, and they threw beer right in front of us,” said Natalie Nguyen, a student at a nearby optometry college whose apartment faces an alley behind Teke house.

“I was terrified,” she said. “It was like a whole bunch of guys there leering at you. I think it’s very much out of control.”

Some students who are not fraternity members fear recent problems could reflect poorly on the student body as a whole.

“Some frats are good, like academic fraternities, but these, it’s like a waste of time,” said sophomore Tony Le, 20. “They give these parties. It’s kind of like they think you have to join a frat to have fun in school. That’s not the way most people here are.”

Since 1960, when the school was founded, fraternity chapters at Cal State Fullerton have given the loud, often wild parties that most frat houses are known for.

Teri Place, a narrow, two-block street one block from campus, has been home to a half-dozen fraternities since the early 1980s. Other Cal State Fullerton fraternities and sororities have houses elsewhere or do not have houses at all, some holding their meetings in buildings on campus.

In 1986, city officials, in response to complaints about noise, passed an ordinance requiring fraternities to meet city conditions to operate.

Under the ordinance, frats must give the city a list of monthly social events and a list of residents. However, the number of events or members isn’t limited.

Teke and two other fraternity chapters sued the city, claiming the ordinance violated the constitutional right of assembly. The city filed a cross complaint that the fraternities had become a public nuisance. An Orange County Superior Court judge agreed with the city, and the three fraternities lost their houses and university recognition.

Teri Place quieted down afterward, city and college officials say. It wasn’t until early 1995, when Tau Kappa Epsilon regained its recognition, that Frat Row become a problem again.

There were complaints about noise and trash being on the grounds of Teke house. In April, police say a party turned nasty when two groups fought about the fraternity’s decision to allow in a woman but not her male companions. Soon, somebody fired four shots into the pavement outside the Teke house.

In August, fraternity members called police to report an attempted rape in progress inside the house.

No charges were filed after any of the incidents.

“The Teke situation has gotten everyone very concerned and helped spur a reaction that we hope will lead to a lot of changes in the ways fraternities operate here,” said Robert Palmer, vice president for student affairs at Cal State Fullerton.

At the gray and red Teke house, fraternity members say the city is giving them a raw deal.

“It’s not a Teke issue as much as it’s a Greek issue,” said Edgar Khalatian, president-elect of the fraternity. “This is finals week, and instead of giving concentration to our finals, we have to worry about this. They are really coming at us full force. They are not willing to work with us.”

Teke members reject their image as a wild party house. They say that Teke members were not involved in the alleged sexual assault, nor in the shooting outside the house. They blame the incidents on outsiders who came to their parties. Police say they have no evidence that Teke members were involved in either the reported attempted rape or in firing the shots.

As for the noise, fraternity members say they haven’t had a party at their house in months.

McMurry said that if the city does not reverse the Planning Commission’s decision lifting Teke’s permit, the future of the whole fraternity system is in doubt.

“They’re going to end up in the middle of the semester on the street, basically. And that, of course, will destroy the chapter,” McMurry said. “And it means that the Greek system, at least in terms of Fraternity Row, is going to get broken up. There is a great deal at stake.”