Almost a month after a deadline to accept a University offer to move to River Road, the Lumpkin Street fraternities are waiting for the University to respond to their concerns about the plan.

“The ball is in our court,” said Rodney Bennett, vice president for student affairs for the University.

Bennett said no fraternities have accepted the deal, including Alpha Tau Omega, which instead proposed a counter-offer.

Negotiations are “in a holding pattern” while University officials work on answers to questions raised by the fraternities when they responded to the Oct. 3 deadline, Bennett said.

In their e-mails and faxes, some of the fraternities questioned the legitimacy of the construction costs for new houses on River Road. The University has said the fraternities must leave their Lumpkin Street houses by June 2008.

The letters also stated room rent and facility use fees for the River Road house would increase operating costs to “prohibitive levels.”

In its Oct. 3 fax, Sigma Nu wrote it intended to continue negotiations to execute a lease within 90 days.

John McGoogan, chairman of the alumni adviser board of Phi Delta Theta, said Tuesday, “It is our understanding that the University is reviewing the areas of concern raised by the fraternities and will be contacting us shortly to continue the dialogue.”

On Oct. 3, Alpha Tau Omega sent a Statement of Intent to Lease to the University saying that the fraternity agreed to lease a 20-bed fraternity house on River Road.

Bennett said the letter was not an acceptance but a counter-offer about the plan ATO would accept.

Bennett would not comment on which details in ATO’s letter constituted a counter-offer, but he said the University has not agreed to ATO’s offer.

Before the Oct. 3 deadline, Bennett said, “we are very interested in having all the groups on Lumpkin Street move to River Road, and we’ll continue to work with them toward that end.”

But the University has not offered the plan to all the Lumpkin Street fraternities.

Bennett said he discussed the offer with Sigma Chi representatives “in an exploratory way,” but he didn’t know if the University would offer the plan to Sigma Chi.

Sigma Chi signed a 40-year lease in 1996, which it can choose to renew for an additional 40 years.

Fred Lanier, president of the House Corporation for Sigma Chi, said the fraternity negotiated the lease with Charles Knapp, University president at the time, because alumni investors needed a long-term commitment before investing in renovating the house.

“We’re very happy where we are. We love that property. We have a financial and sentimental attachment to it,” Lanier said.

Danny Sniff, University architect, said the University will build new academic buildings around Sigma Chi’s house but would respect their lease and their house.

Bennett said none of the Lumpkin Street fraternities and neither of the two former River Road fraternities which were offered the plan have agreed to move to River Road.

Bennett said the seven fraternities offered the plan had met the University’s expectation by communicating their positions regarding the offer.

But he said there was no timeline for when the University would respond to the fraternities’ concerns with a new River Road plan.