Page 27 - 1913 November - To Dragma

32 TO PRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI

TAX ON CORNELL HOUSES

FRATERNITIES U P I N ARMS OVER INCREASES I N ASSESSMENTS.

Special to The New York Times.

I T H A C A , N . Y., April 26.—The city board of tax assessors has
finally refused to make any material alterations in the valuations of
various properties belonging to Cornell University fraternities in
spite of violent protests against discriminating increases in their
valuations which have been made this year.

A table showing the valuation of various fraternity properties this
year and three years ago and corresponding valuations of private
property in the same districts has been compiled. On practically all
fraternity house on the H i l l the valuations have been considerably
raised and in certain cases they have been doubled, while those on
private properties remain the same.

One of the hardest fights is over the figure placed on a certain
property situated northwest of the university grounds and away from
town. The house had been a private residence until this year, when
it was sold to a fraternity. This spring the valuation of the prop-
erty was doubled, though no improvements had been made upon it
and property in the same neighborhood was not raised.

The attitude of the assessors on the fraternity assessment question
was well reflected on "grievance day" when, in answer to a fraternity
representative who compared its property with that of surrounding
citizens, a member of the board said:

"Don't compare fraternity property with private property; com-
pare this assessment with other fraternity assessments."

I t seems to be a case of open discrimination and in all probability
the students will take their case to the Supreme Court.