As the saying goes, two’s company, three’s a crowd.

And for the Kansas Alpha Chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity at Baker University, trying to fit all 50 of its members into a 37-bedroom house can get more than crowded rather quickly.

“The luxury of our house is that we each have our own room,” sophomore Caleb Watts said. “But these rooms aren’t made to split with two different people. They’re smaller rooms made for a single person to be in the room.”

So, in order to accommodate the fraternity’s now 50 members, some men will have to turn to other living arrangements for the 2011-2012 year, with seniors being the first eligible to decide whether to stay or move out of the house.

As far as plans to actually expand the chapter house to fit all of the new members, Watts said updating, and renovating, the current house is more of a goal than making actual structural additions.

“Adding on financially would probably not be best for us at this point,” Watts said. “We’re looking at improving the quality of the house before we start expanding at all.”

Considering the chapter had less than half the members it does now than during his freshman year, junior Eric Reimer, president of Sigma Phi Epsilon, knows that while there can be negatives to having a large number of members, there can also be positives.

“There’s a lot more positives, I think, than more negatives,” he said. “The positives would be we have a pretty diverse … group of guys that we pretty much have everybody in one form of athletics, choir, band. … That’s what I like about having a lot of guys. And then, also, it just makes our house look strong, that we have this many people involved in our fraternity.”

Last weekend, the members from the chapter received recognition for its strength in numbers at the Carlson Leadership Academy, Sigma Phi Epsilon’s Midwest regional conference, in Dallas by being awarded the Manpower Excellence Award and the Excelsior Cup for Recruitment.

“It was pretty prestigious for us,” Reimer said. “It’s kind of nice to see that we still got that award, even though we’re small.”

But it’s not just recruitment numbers the fraternity is looking to maintain and improve in the coming years, it’s the overall chapter as well.

Both Reimer and Watts said Sigma Phi Epsilon is making preparations to compete for the Buchanan Cup, which is the most prestigious award a Sigma Phi Epsilon chapter can win.

The entire process of submitting, competing and winning takes about two years. So, members of the chapter will have to wait until Spring 2013 to find out if their chapter wins.

But as for right now, members of the Kansas Alpha Chapter will just be looking ahead to recruitment in the fall.

“Next year, who knows what’s going to happen?” Watts said. “We’ll have to wait and see.”