Due to continuous conflict with their national organization and financial problems, the University's Tau Kappa Epsilon chapter lost their charter earlier this week.

"We have very strict risk management guidelines," TKE Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer Kevin Mayeux said. "We couldn't get the group in Michigan to follow even the most basic of those standards."

Mayeux said there have been problems with the University's TKE chapter for the past several years. He said among the chapter's faults were disrespectful brothers, lack of property care and an inability to meet financial obligations, though the fraternity charges abnormally high pledge fees.

"In this group, there were so many things that were off-key and wrong," Mayeux said.

The chapter is also currently being sued in Washtenaw County Circuit Court by its local board of advisors for a number of issues. The biggest complaint alleges that the fraternity misused almost $35,000 in dues.

Mayeux said he believes each new member paid $1,600 to pledge the fraternity this year, but only $255 per pledge went to the national headquarters. The rest of the money is unaccounted for, he said. All 34 current residents of the house were named as defendants. A hearing date has not been set.

"From the information we have received, the guys in the chapter house charged the freshmen a very exorbitant initiation fee," Mayeux said. The TKE pledge fee is the highest paid at the University.

A sophomore TKE member who wished to remain anonymous said the reason dues were so high this year was because the fraternity received inadequate funding and aid from their nationals and alumni.

"We had no guidance from our nationals," he said.

The member did say he thought there was some "shady business" among the fraternity's executive board with regards to members' fees and said he regrets paying the dues. He also said he has a very apathetic view of his fraternity as a result of this year.

"If I could do it over, I would not have paid a cent," he said. "My pink tricycle at home is more important than TKE to me."

While mostly sophomores are named in the lawsuit, the freshmen that pledged the fraternity are facing their own problems - namely, finding a new place to live in the fall in the midst of finals.

"The burden was all on us. The sophomores, juniors, seniors didn't care about anything and it was all their fault," said an LSA freshman who pledged the house and wished to remain anonymous.

Mayeux said another reason nationals revoked the TKE charter was because they did not feel members showed any pride or responsibility for their house.

The fraternity's alumni spent over $100,000 in house renovations last summer. But when he arrived at the house for pledge initiation this winter, Mayeux said the house had obviously been neglected.

He claimed smoke detectors were short circuited because beer had been poured in them, there were kegs inside the house, windows were broken and a homeless person was found sleeping on the grounds.

"This was the worst I've seen any TKE chapter at any time" Mayeux said.

The anonymous freshman said TKE was definitely more disgusting than other houses.

"Other houses are trashed, but the sophomores took it to a whole new level. You couldn't even breathe in that house," he said.

But the anonymous sophomore refuted Mayeux's claim and said that the alumni gave only $13,000 for renovations last year. He said members pooled in $700 per person in order to make improvements on the house, but admitted that the house is not perfectly clean all the time.

"For the most part, sometimes trash does accumulate. That's what a frat house is like," he said.

LSA freshman Adam Rosen said the house itself did not bother him. "I would have been willing to live there because it's a frat house and it would have been a messy place," Rosen said.

Mayeux said nationals tried to accommodate the freshmen planning on moving into the house next year by extending an offer to the pledges that would give them the opportunity to start the fraternity over and the chance to live in the house next year. The sophomore brother said the offer was ridiculous.

"(The people living in the house) would have to pay $8,000 in rent upfront for the whole year," he said. "They would have to pay for a housefather to live here and, on top of that, utilities."

The anonymous freshman said that although his pledge brothers were looking forward to living together in the house, the biggest burden in the alumni's deal was having to pay for the housefather.

"We would have had to pay for his rent.