Inside the new brick-and-copper building on campus are hardwood floors, comfy couches, a fireplace and single and double rooms.

The building has an elevator, just one more feature of being up to code for fire and disabilities. The house, while not spotless, is clean, even in the bathrooms.

This is the new Kappa Sigma fraternity house.

The house, which has three floors plus a basement, is able to sleep 32 but there are only 22 men in the house. The house has doubles and singles with one triple. However, everyone but the two guys living in the triple has a single room at this time.

The house is the first of the new fraternity houses. It is owned in part by the University of Denver and part by Kappa Sigma. This allows the members some of the benefits of the use of the custodian staff that clean the bathrooms and common areas.

“While DU does own a part of it, we also have a share so we get a say in how we decorate it, but we get the custodial help,” said Brian Tittertington.

The Blue Sage Catering delivers the lunches and dinner.

“The meals are separate and comparable to a meal plan,” said Titterington, a member who resides at the house.

“We like to say it’s the best food on campus,” added Max Jaeger, another resident.

The men are responsible for cleaning the kitchen and dining room after the meals.

The house is centrally located on the Driscoll lawn.

“The biggest benefit of the house is the location which is two minutes from Sturm,” said Titterington.

The new house has helped the fraternity get back on its feet after some hard years without a house.

Two years ago the fraternity almost disbanded because it had no members left. This was a year after the old house was torn down. The fraternity has gone from two members to 27 since construction began on the new house.

“It was hard to basically start from scratch,” said Titterington. “It was hard to have no place to hold rush meetings.”

But it is still the brotherhood that makes this fraternity work and not the house, he said.

“Any guy in the house would say that he didn’t join for the building but for the guys,” said Titterington. “The people we recruit really enjoy the people.”

The fraternity gave out six bids this past rush season and initiated five members.

This is the first new fraternity house on the DU campus. But two more are soon to follow with Lambda Chi and Sigma Chi both getting new houses using the same matching system that Kappa Sigma used.

“Because we are the first new house we are the learning curve,” said Titterington.

Although fraternities are popular at DU, nationwide the Greek system is frowned upon by many.

“The biggest obstacles to overcome are the fraternity reputations, especially in Colorado,” said Titterington. “All the DU fraternities pride themselves on the fact that we don’t have the same problems as on other campuses. We all have come to realize fraternity life isn’t what it used to be, its not animal house.”

That is not to say that they don’t know how to have a good time anymore.

“Kappa Sigma and all the frats are trying to have fun. Work hard and play harder,” said Jaeger. But they can still handle their school work.

My grades went up living in the house,” said Titterington.