Pi Kappa Alpha and Kappa Sigma each received a letter from the MTSU Business Office threatening to terminate their lease agreements because of delinquent rent payments.

According to the letter, the fraternities have 30 days to make payment arrangements.

The letters, dated Aug. 20, said Kappa Sigma owed $64,488.41 while Pi Kappa Alpha had an outstanding balance of $69,833.60. Pi Kappa Alpha made two payments to the university on Aug. 26, which lowered their outstanding balance to $29,833.60.

The university is prepared to evict the fraternities if the accounts cannot be settled, according to David Hays, associate vice president and dean of student life.

"We haven't come up with any plan yet that has been approved," Hays said.

PKA President Luke Naylor proposed that his fraternity should keep their rent current and pay an additional amount per month to pay off their debt, according to Naylor and Hays.

"Our preference is to get the total amount now," said Allan Thomas, university controller.

"To my knowledge we've not received any response from Kappa Sigma," Hays said.

The fraternities must propose a plan to settle their debt, which must be approved by John Cothern, vice president for business and finance.

"Some of the groups have struggled to keep their house full which has affected their ability to pay us," Hays said. "These [debts] have gone too far, and we needed to reign these in."

The fraternities offered very different reasons for the unpaid invoices.

"There was a miscommunication between us and our housing corp, and between the housing corp and the university," Naylor said. "We were under the impression that (the university was) receiving payments."

Barry McMahan, treasurer of the Kappa Sigma Housing Corporation, said his organization has not attempted to contact the university because he has not received any notice from the university regarding an outstanding debt.

"I haven't received a letter," McMahan said. "All of the administrators ... know who I am. If there was a major problem, I'd imagine one of them would pick up the phone and call me." He added later in the interview that a university official had left a message for him yesterday, but that he didn't know the subject of the call.

The fraternities utilize similar systems to pay the university rent owed for the rooms on Greek Row. Each fraternity has a housing manager, who collects rent from residents of the fraternity house.

The housing manager deposits that money into a checking account, and writes a check to his fraternity's housing corporation, which is administered by an alum of the local chapter.

According to Naylor, Pi Kappa Alpha uses a billing service to collect its members' individual rents and to deposit that money in their checking account, although the house manager is the one who writes the check to their housing corporation.

The housing corporation is responsible for making all monthly payments to the university. The university makes semi-annual payments to the Tennessee State School Bond Authority, which originally funded the construction of the houses on Greek Row. The payment schedule has operated this way since the houses opened in fall 2000.

Naylor said the checks his fraternity sent to its housing corporation were lost in the mail over the course of the summer, because Robert Holman, who is in charge of the Pi Kappa Alpha housing corporation, moved at the end of May.

When asked if the housing manager noticed that the checks to the housing corporation were not being cashed, Naylor denied that the manager had been derelict in his duties.

"He noticed it, and tried to get in touch with (Holman)," Naylor said. "We had bad communication with him."

After Holman received the letter from the university requesting immediate payment arrangements, he and Naylor talked about the situation.

"He stated to us that he thought we were going to wait until August to pay the university," Naylor said.

Both Naylor and McMahan named a low occupancy rate as problematic to paying the full amount owed to the university. However, members of PKA have signed enough leases to maintain maximum occupancy at their house for the upcoming school year. KS is only a few rooms short of maximum occupancy.

"This is a seasonal issue," McMahan said. "Coming out of the summer, we run up debt every year. You just don't have enough people [to pay the rent]. ... There will always be issues coming out of the summer."

The fraternities have different plans to pay off the accrued debts.

"The rent per room has gone up over this past year to get caught up on what we owe," Naylor said. "Now we're on track and making it."

McMahan said that his organization was the most financially well-off of any Greek organization on campus, noting their debt-free, 2.3 acre property off campus as well as a financially-strong alumni network.

"Anyway you cut it, we've got a manageable situation," McMahan said. "Any debt we have, we could pay it five or six times over."

The deadline for PKA and KS to make financial arrangements with the university is Sept. 19. Failure to make arrangements by that time could result in the termination of their leases.

While as a rule, I have a distaste for greeks, I also have a few greek friends -- they're not all bad, albeit brainwashed.

Say what you will, but they can make some marvelously tasty things with pita bread.

Well played. Gyros rock!

I feel bad for the new inductees. It's not their actions that caused this situation. While as a rule, I have a distaste for greeks, I also have a few greek friends -- they're not all bad, albeit brainwashed.

And so does Zach Galifianakis.