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From the Harvard Crimson:The Pi Eta Society, founded in 1866, began as a literary and theatrical organization similar to the Hasty Pudding. In the 1970s, the Pi merged with the Speaker's Club to form the present organization. The Massachusetts Secretary of State's office lists the Pi Eta Speaker's Associates as a corporation founded in 1895. For most of its history, the Pi was headquartered on Kirkland Street at the present location of Grendel's Den restaurant and bar. The club later moved to 45 Mt. Auburn St., a building it still owns. It rents apartments at the top of the building. Harvard broke ties with the Pi Eta and the final clubs in 1984, when the organizations refused to admit women. Unlike Harvard's nine all-male final clubs, the Pi Eta is not associated with the Inter-Club Council, which governs the final clubs. [1]Pi Eta’s reputation for being more open and diverse than the final clubs served it well for many years. However, in 1984 a copy of their club newsletter—containing such gems (allegedly meant as jokes) as the phrase quoted on the Perspective posters and a reference to female party guests as “a bevy of slobbering bovines fresh for the slaughter”—was accidentally released and circulated in April. More than 100 students rallied in front of the club the following Saturday night during a party, and that Tuesday, Dean of the College John B. Fox ’59 and Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III asked the club to shut down. The previous fall the club had closed for a month when 10 initiates were sent to University Health Services after consuming too much alcohol, but this time the club refused to obey administrators.A string of incidents and revelations over the next few years damaged the club’s reputation further. A woman alleged she was raped by a Harvard student at the club in 1986, though the district attorney’s office dropped the complaint due to lack of evidence. An assault-and-battery was reported to Harvard police in 1987, Cambridge police arrested three men involved in a brawl outside the entrance to the club in 1989 and there were various complaints about naked men standing in the windows in the fall of 1990. The event that got the most attention was the alleged rape of a female Northeastern student in 1988 that was eventually settled out of court in 1991. A Crimson article noted that court documents claimed “the club maintained an unsanitary ‘mattress room’ for sexual exploits and promoted the room in its newsletters.”Graduates—especially those in prominent positions—took notice of these problems. Under media scrutiny, then-Mass. State Treasurer Joseph D. Malone ’78, once a member of Pi Eta’s graduate board, severed ties with the club in April 1991. Later that year, the graduates decided to shut the place down. “They got tired of the police showing up every weekend,” Epps explains, adding he was “pleasantly surprised” by their decision.For five years, the building sat empty. But in 1996, what Epps deems an “unfortunate development” occurred. Sigma Chi moved in. Luckily for them, serendipity struck when tax foreclosure proceedings on the Pi Eta house began in 1995. Pi Eta was considering selling the house, a well-located property with large rooms suited for group gatherings, until members heard about Sigma Chi’s needs. Ordinarily the price for such a space would have been out of range for a fledgling fraternity like Sigma Chi, but Pi Eta decided to cut them some slack.On April 20, 1996, three Pi Eta members met with a representative of Sigma Chi at a Bickford’s Restaurant on Route 1 and hammered out new bylaws for the Pi Eta Speakers Associates, the corporation that controls the property at 43-45 Mount Auburn St. For 10 years, seven members of the board would be Pi Etas and five would be Sigma Chis. Over the next 10 years, the makeup was to be even, six Pi Etas and six Sigma Chis. The 10 years after that, Sigma Chi would have the majority of members, with seven members versus Pi Eta’s five. Thereafter, Pi Etas would no longer need to serve on the board.In exchange for their membership in the Pi Eta Speakers Associates, Sigma Chi promised to arrange for a loan of $200,000 to fund capital improvements on the house and take on the responsibility for operating and maintaining the property. In September 1996, students again set up shop at 43-45 Mount Auburn.Pi Eta, though, had a different view of the situation. By August 2000, they decided they wanted out of the deal. Brian R. Barringer ’88, one of the Pi Etas, says they were simply disappointed with the relationship. “We had expectations of the group and they didn’t live up to them,” he explains. “We were interested in an organizational structure and a group that could have financial strength.”Barringer attributes the decision to a “lack of synergy” between the two groups. The main problem with the personal relationship between the organizations seems to be that Pi Eta is no longer much of an organization. Pi Eta grads occasionally gathered at the house after football games and Sigma Chi has invited alumni to past events, but without a more explicit connection to an undergraduate body, many Pi Eta alums seem to have lost interest. “We do have alumni, but I wouldn’t describe them as particularly active,” Barringer says.As there is no undergraduate Pi Eta group, the society lingered on as little more than a landlord for a national fraternity. This status continued to bother the Pi Etas, who saw no reason to continue their end of the 30-year deal. It seemed like the best choice was to give up, and against the wishes of Sigma Chi, the house was placed on the market in January 2001.Prior to the meeting of the Pi Eta Speakers Associates April 18, 2001, the Pi Eta members put together a special agenda. Among the orders of business were to amend the bylaws to clear the board of Sigma Chis, request the resignation of Sigma Chis and conduct an election to fill all of the vacancies in the officership of the corporation. The Sigma Chi delegation walked out and filed a suit against the Pi Etas in Middlesex Superior Court the next day. Not to be outdone, Pi Eta filed a countersuit against Sigma Chi. [2]Eventually the the club then sold the Mt. Auburn St. property to the Foundation for Civic Leadership, a non-profit organization, for a reported $2.75 million. [3][1] http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1992/11/6/pi-eta-club-goes-dormant-after/[2] http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2002/5/2/fraternal-disorder-fifty-guys-cant-fit/[3] http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2003/11/6/sigma-chi-frat-still-homeless-after/