Residents of Bromfield Road who complained to Tufts about loud parties and a sign proclaiming the home of "Chi Tau Delta" fraternity need not worry - 90 Bromfield Rd. is not the newest frat on campus.
"It appears that it's a group of students who have no affiliation with the Tufts Greek system," Director of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs Todd Sullivan said.
"It's being approached from the standpoint of requesting them as students that they take down any letters that might lead people to believe that they are a fraternity, because they certainly are not," he said.
Sullivan emphasized that none of the students in the house had any connection with Tufts' Greek system.
"I have looked in our rosters. None of the students who live there are members of our fraternities and sororities," Sullivan said.
The house had primitively fashioned wooden unpainted letters tacked to its front porch.
Director of Community Relations Barbara Rubel said that the appearance of the letters worried neighbors.
"I received a call from a neighbor on Bromfield Road who was concerned that a group of Tufts students were establishing a fraternity house there because Greek letters had appeared on the front porch of a nearby house," Rubel said. "I said I'd look into it."
Rubel said that the presence of a fraternity house on a neighborhood street would be a problem in a number of ways.
"The neighborhood would probably not welcome it and it would be a violation of the relationship statement between Tufts' fraternities and sororities and the University," she said.
Rubel said that when she visited the house, nobody was home, so she e-mailed the students to request that they take the letters down.
"After I sent out an e-mail to the residents asking that the letters come down, I received a call from one of them who explained that this was all, essentially, a joke. I believe that the Tufts students will cooperate and remove the letters," Rubel said.
The letters had been removed as of yesterday afternoon. Residents of the Bromfield house were not home to comment at press time.
"I don't look at it as a Greek issue," Sullivan said. "It would be different if there were students who were interested in starting a new organization, I would always be happy about talking to students about what that process would entail."
-Brian McPartland contribued to this article.
