After a meeting with Ames City Council Tuesday night, it was brought to attention that the Iowa State greek houses were not following specific housing and fire codes.

“It was just a situation where it slipped through the cracks, and it was something that was brought to the attention of the new fire chief,” said Benjamin Freese, president of the Interfraternity Council.

The new codes worried some greek members, including Drew Sherman, member of Acacia.

“Obviously, if we weren’t able to live in the chapter facility, and if we had to pay for all the costs that the city’s expecting us to take, that’s something that financially is tough for college students like us,” said Sherman. “As an organization, it’s extremely difficult to deal with.”

Sherman also stated that asking any organization to raise that much money is nearly impossible.

Hillary Kletscher, Government of the Student Body vice president and member of Alpha Gamma Delta, said she feels that there is still a lot more conversation to be had about the topic, but it is subject to change if the codes pass.

“If we are not exempt from rental code, it will definitely mean that sororities will have to make renovations, just as fraternities do, and it’ll change the number of women that we can have living in our homes and it’ll probably just change in general the experience in the greek community,” Kletscher said. “Because right now, over 50 women can live in those chapter facilities.”

Freese said he believes that the city council has worked well with the greek community in the past and he feels that the community should be okay.

“The council has been great about working with us in the past, and we’re so glad that this has continued,” Freese said. “The city council members were thoughtful in their questions and seemed to me to be very receptive while we provided our rationale about exempting the Greek community or creating a different code.”

Kletscher said she is looking forward to having conversations with the city council so she can hear their perspective on the matter.

“I think that the city council is very open to having conversations with the greek community, they are supporters of the greek community,” Kletscher said.

If the code does go through, the greek community will have to go through extensive procedures to raise that much money, if it is even possible.

“With the amount of money that they’re asking us to raise, I don’t think there is a way,” Sherman said. “I think we would be calling upon alumni, but with the amount of money that it could potentially cost us, I don’t think there really is a way for any organization just to throw that much money at a project that the city would want us to undertake.”

The city council has not yet made a decision on whether to enforce the codes or not.