Baker University alumni will soon have a familiar place to visit when they return to campus because a well-known house on campus is in the process of transforming into an alumni center.
Baker will soon move into 519 Eighth Street, better known to BU students, faculty and staff as the Zeta Alpha Chapter of Phi Mu.
“Phi Mu approached Baker last May when they decided to close the (Zeta Alpha) chapter and talked to University President Pat Long about leasing the house,” Chief Operating Officer Susan Lindahl said.
Baker agreed to rent the house until the possibility of the sorority returning to campus happens, which could be in three years.
“We saw this opportunity and knew we could be a placeholder for the house and also pilot the idea of an alumni center,” Lindahl said.
Junior Katie Reed, who served as the vice president of Phi Mu last year, said the women of the Zeta Alpha chapter were grateful Baker chose to lease the house.
“They’re keeping the house in the family,” Reed said. “Baker has been nothing but supportive toward us, and it means a lot that our house isn’t empty or being occupied by another party.”
If Baker had not been interested in renting the space, the house could have been rented to an outside party.
The house is being turned into a place for alumni to visit and meet when they come to Baker, but there are also plans in place to move the University Advancement offices into the second floor of the house, which will open up space for classrooms in Constant Hall, where the advancement office is currently housed. A faculty and staff lounge, as well as meeting rooms, will also be incorporated into the plans for the sorority house.
The alumni center is projected to be ready by Oct. 7 when a Baker University Board of Trustees business meeting is set to take place there.
“We haven’t even begun to explore the possibilities that this space has provided us with,” Lyn Lakin, vice president of university advancement, said. “Half of our alumni are unaffiliated, so now when they come back to visit Baker they have a home and destination.”
Alumni committees, meetings, reunions, homecoming festivities and even wedding receptions could be held in the alumni center as well.
Phi Mu alumnae will be especially welcomed back to their house when they return for homecoming or other university activities, like STAG each May.
“We are extending a personal invitation to Phi Mu members when they are back on campus and we want to have the house open and available to them,” Lindahl said.
Baker is making only minor changes to the house, including painting and updating some lighting.
Additionally, items from the Baker archives will be housed in the building.
“This is a chance to showcase the things alumni have given over the years,” Lakin said. “It’s a living demonstrating of the generosity of our alumni.”
