The Long Road Home

Xenocles Chapter Set to Return to University of Texas - Arlington

Almost 36 years ago, on September 13, 1970, Xenocles Chapter was installed, returning Alpha Rho Chi to its high point of 10 active chapters. Seventeen years later, the charter with Buckminster Fuller's signature was tucked away for safe keeping, the doors were closed at 402 Summit, and the chapter house keys returned to the university. In the years that followed, the house was taken over by a sorority whose members painted it pink and lime green. Those pink and green days were dark for Xenocles alumni, especially those visiting campus from time to time. But the house is no longer there, demolished to make way for a parking lot which has yet to materialize. To this day, when alumni drive by the site of the last chapter house, they call other alumni and reminisce about the days of meetings on the gazebo, meals in the shed, ceiling and bathroom renovations, the lack of grounded wiring in the kitchen and - with a catch in their throat - initiations in the backyard. Every phone conversation inevitably trails off as the alumni discuss the last time they participated in a Xenocles initiation …"Has it really been that long?"

There is a noticeable buzz in the Dallas/Ft. Worth air of late. This summer, through the cooperation of dedicated alumni, the national fraternity, and top-notch students, faculty and administrators at UT-Arlington's School of Architecture, the Xenocles Chapter will return, bringing the list of active chapters to its highest point yet at 19! Though the reactivated Xenocles Chapter will have no address to call "home" just yet, the alumni are already making arrangements for a stirring centerpiece above the first Xenocles Chapter house mantle – that being, the two charters of Xenocles Chapter, framed side by side.

Welcome back, Xenocles!