Presidents and house managers from Penn State's fraternities gathered last night in HUB-Heritage Hall to hear a State College police officer discuss behaviors that have lately caused problems.

In light of recent troubles some fraternities have been having -- most notably Phi Kappa Tau, who was evicted this semester -- fraternity presidents attended to learn what conduct would be considered a violation.

"You can get points for ... pretty much anything," Abe Gitterman, president of Delta Sigma Phi said.

Frank Keller, Interfraternity Council (IFC) Executive Vice President, came up with the idea -- which he called a "necessity" -- and suggested it to the rest of the executive board after chapter presidents came to him asking advice when it was "too late."

"I'm hosting this because the Borough of State College issues housing points to property owners in general," he said. "Since this is the IFC, I'm hosting this to help educate fraternity members on how they get housing points through the borough."

Officer Gregory Koehle, community relations and crime prevention officer for the borough, discussed, among other things, occupancy limits, code enforcement and the points system.

"You have more people who are more concerned with your behavior," Koehle said, speaking to the audience.

Koehle said the borough wants to educate those living in State College about possible infringements and how to avoid them.

"We really just like to provide them with information so they understand our philosophy on a compliance and enforcement standpoint," he said.

He said every crime is going to have points associated with it, giving examples that infractions like dog violations would be one point, disorderly conduct would be two points and offenses like aggravated assault and rape would be three points.

A representative from each fraternity was required to attend, Keller said, though he said each fraternity's president ideally should be in attendance.

Though more than a few arrived later than the 6:30 p.m start time, and some of the fraternity men in attendance seemed to be more interested in text messaging and reading The Daily Collegian than listening to Koehle, there were some in the audience who listened to the police officer and pledged to heed his information and advice.

Hillen Grason, a pledge from Delta Sigma Phi, said though he thought Officer Koehle should have discussed possible sanctions from the borough, he learned some things.

"I thought it was informative," he said.

Kappa Alpha Order president R.J. Dibella said he was returning to his fraternity house later to discuss the seminar with his brothers and pledges.

"Basically, it was good to know the different things you can get in trouble for," he said.

He added that he didn't realize that more serious things like disorderly conduct can result in points for houses in the borough.

Keller said the information attendees learned last night will help fraternity members in making future decisions.

"Everyone wants to learn what's going on so they can help the chapter members make responsible decisions," he said.