Regional station WVLT (CBS affiliate) reports:
http://www.volunteertv.com/news/headlines/36311484.html
No immediate word that I've seen yet as to when the houses will re-open. Very tough for the men to have to go through this at this time of year. Excerpts from the story posted on WVLT's web site:
Residents living in three on-campus fraternity houses have voluntarily closed their doors after a Tennessee State Fire Marshal found several fire code violations during inspections.
The three are:
* Pi Kappa Phi
* Lambda Chi Alpha
* Sigma Phi Epsilon
Occupants of all three homes were given two choices, voluntarily vacate or hire someone to keep a trained 24 hour fire watch at each of the homes until the violations were fixed and the homes re-inspected . . . .
As I mentioned in connection with a similar recent situation at the U of Kentucky, events like this are a sobering reminder to house managers, RM officers, and house corporations -- as well as to current actives in chapters-- to do their best to keep housing up to codes.
Edited to add from another source
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/de...violate-codes/
Karen Collins, spokeswoman for UT, said she was unsure if the fraternity houses would be opened for the next semester.
"We don't own the houses; we own the land," Collins said. "Ultimately, it's up to the chapters to schedule the work."
Collins said fraternity houses are operated by house corporations composed of chapter alumni. She said there are 13 fraternity houses on campus. With three closed for renovations and three closed for safety issues, the campus now has seven functioning fraternity houses.
