The crowd started milling around the fraternity house a little before noon, which, in frat time, is either real early or real late.
At issue was exactly how and when to tear the place apart.
Business as usual, it would seem, on the University of Utah's Greek Row.
Other than the fact Bernie Machen, the university president, was there in the crowd, and he was smiling.
"We could get arrested for this size crowd if it were a weekend night," said the president.
But this was no weekend night, and the only business at hand was envisioning a reinforced, restored Sigma Chi fraternity house as a new and improved crown jewel on the fraternity and sorority enclave along 100 South.
No, they are not moving, but they are getting better insulation.
It was Leon "Pete" Peterson who introduced the architects, handed out the gold shovels and orchestrated the ground-breaking ceremony.
You can't have a cause without a conscience. In the renovation of Sigma Chi, that would be Leon. He's not exactly old but he's old enough to pre-date the hippie era along frat row, which means he lived on 100 South back when the Greek clubs were the alpha and omega of college life.
Leon pledged Sigma Chi as a University of Utah freshman in 1957. On and off for the next nine years, as he moved through undergraduate and graduate degrees, the fraternity was his home and his identity. To this day, his closest friends and associates date back to those days. His life is rich, he says, because of that, so rich he sometimes can't believe it.
He wishes everyone could have the kind of college experience he had, one that will last well beyond college and, like a good stock, keeps bringing dividends.
Leon thinks strongly that going to the U. should be more than living in Murray, working part time at the Rainbo mart, driving to biology class, and clearing the campus before sundown.
When he began to hear rumblings recently that the Greek system was coming under attack at a number of campuses around the country, and specifically at the U. of U., he couldn't stand still and do nothing.
He got on the phone.
In no time, he had pledges from fellow Sigs for the $600,000 that is launching the house renovation project that is projected to total $2 million by the time it's finished next fall.
A renovation that is as much symbolic as it is structural.
It hasn't hurt any that Bernie Machen is pro-Greek.
Better yet, that he's Sigma Chi.
Yep. Vanderbilt University chapter.
Strong fraternal organizations are a big asset to any university, and particularly to a commuter campus such as the U. of U., the school president said Wednesday at the Sig house as he raised a ceremonial shovel and praised the U.'s Greek system as "better than most I've seen." At their best, he said, fraternities and sororities make good neighbors and good citizens, thereby enhancing and adding to a university's interconnectiveness.
If you're keeping score at home, that's six syllables.
What this all means to the big Tudor Sigma Chi house first built in 1915 is a face lift on steroids.
Bigger, better, stronger and with more computer lines and a new bike storage system radically different from the old system, which was next to your bed.
As Leon Peterson put it Wednesday, every millennium or so a house needs a good overhaul, some modern upgrades and a fresh coat of paint.
Especially when it's your house.
Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.