DJ Komposit’s show was canceled abruptly Friday when members of Michigamua, which meets in the building planned for the show, complained to the proprietor. Michigamua is a secret society which lost its meeting space in the Michigan Union after a sit-in organized by the Students of Color Coalition two years ago.
- Paul Wong
- The Delta Kappa Epsilon house on East William Street has been the topic of a custody battle between the local and national chapters of DKE. (KELLY LIN/Daily)
The show, part of Encompass’ after-party, was scheduled to occur in the Shant, a building owned by the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity, located at 611 E. William St.
“I sent out a million emails about the after party,” said Deepa Challa, a leader of Encompass.
After hearing the party was canceled, Deepa sent a mass e-mail to explain why the event had been canceled.
“When I asked DKE if they were actually allowed to rent out the house to other groups, such as us for parties, they replied ‘well, we’ve never had a problem before,'” Deepa wrote in the e-mail, which was sent to hundreds of students.
David Easlick, executive director of the national DKE fraternity, said the members of the University’s chapter pay $50 each semester to use the building for special ceremonies and events, but did not have permission to rent it to other organizations because they do not own it.
“Those kids have no authority to lease that to anybody,” Easlick said. “To find out that they had done that two other times … I was shocked.”
Easlick is president of the Rampart Lion Foundation, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the national DKE fraternity that owns the Shant.
“Michigamua is paying $1,000 a month to use it once a week for meetings,” Easlick said.
Easlick said he instructed the local chapter to cancel the event, or else “they would lose their charter and they’d all lose their pins.”
Michigamua members had contacted Easlick via e-mail, saying they were concerned that property in the building might be damaged.
“If this takes place, I’m sure our table will get banged up again, and the (current members) will probably return to one helluva mess on Monday night,” Corey Fernandez, a Michigamua member, wrote in an e-mail to the property rental company.
“Part of our lease agreement is that stuff doesn’t get damaged. … We just informed the rental company we were concerned,” Eric Wilson, a Michigamua member, said.
Komposit member Roshen Patel said at an event earlier this semester at the Shant, (DKE) “told us that they had spoke to nationals and they had OK’d it.”
Derek Liu, a member of Komposit, said they arranged to rent the building for $500. He said Komposit had arranged to sign the rental contract Friday when Robin Chand, the president of the local DKE chapter contacted him.
“He basically told me that, because the event was so highly publicized, they had to cancel it,” Liu said.
The DKE fraternity president said Encompass and Komposit did not consult with the fraternity about the theme of the event and promoted it before they had signed a contract.
“Given the situation, we find that Encompass and/or Komposit have misrepresented their role in this debacle, i.e. they have not taken responsibility for mistakes that were theirs, not ours,” Robin Chand, president of the University’s DKE chapter, said in a written statement.