Fraternity Life Takes on a More Sober Hue

Scott Fishman, president of the Chapman College chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon Fraternity, stood at the entrance to the Davis Community Center on the Orange campus the other evening greeting fellow students with a nervous smile as they arrived at his fraternity’s dance initiating rush week.

Though the 21-year-old senior had performed this membership recruitment ritual before--for two years as president of Chapman’s largest fraternity--tonight his stomach was in a knot.

For the first time in their history, Fishman and his fellow Sig Eps were holding a “dry,” or non-alcoholic, rush, and he feared the absence of alcohol, which has been called the “lifeblood of rush,” would keep away potential pledges. “We’re known for throwing wet , wet rushes,” Fishman said forebodingly.

Later, as the dance neared it’s frenzied denouement, a visitor happened upon Fishman in a back room using his commanding charm to sell 20 rushees on pledging his 56-member Sig Ep chapter. He talked exuberantly to the attentive rushees huddled about him because he sensed success; the number of pledges this fall would meet or exceed the 21 garnered the year before.

Interrupting his sales spiel to assess how things had turned out, Fishman said: “Things are going great! I couldn’t ask for more. I’m talking to 20 guys (potential pledges) now. And you can see from the smiles of people on the dance floor that everybody’s having a good time.

Planned Just Right

“We planned it just right: plenty of food and a fantastic DJ playing great dance music. We didn’t need alcohol. . . . I have no regrets we took a chance on going dry.”

Rushees such as freshman Bobby Hubbart seemed to share this view: “Even though it’s dry, I think this is the best kind of rush,” Hubbart said. It gives you a chance to talk to the guys in Sig Ep and find out what they’re really like while everybody can think straight.”

Fishman’s Sig Eps have joined other Greek fraternities and sororities at Orange County’s four-year colleges--UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton and Chapman--that have been pressured into adopting dry rushes in the past year. The most dramatic turnaround has come among the county’s 22 fraternities, where the number conducting dry rush has leaped from two to 14.

In fact, this fall’s rush season--which ended last Sunday in Orange County with the conclusion of UCI’s two-week round of festivities--saw the majority of the county’s Greek organizations conduct dry rush. Even among the remaining Greeks who stuck with the traditional wet rush, many said they believe that by the time today’s college freshman graduates, the age of alcohol rush will have ended in Orange County and the rest of the nation.

This movement to wipe out wet rush--and to decrease alcohol consumption by college students in general--stems from the widespread belief that abuse of alcohol by students on college campuses causes problems ranging from vandalism and injury to a lessening of academic performance, interviews with over more than students and administrators at UCI, Cal State Fullerton and Chapman show.

“Misuse of alcohol is the leading cause of death among college students,” said T. Roger Nudd, Cal State Fullerton’s vice president for student services.

Annual Student Deaths

“Each year 7,000 college-age students are killed in alcohol-related traffic accidents,” Nudd said. As a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity’s national task force on college alcohol abuse, Nudd is a nationally recognized expert on the nature and extent of this problem.

The effort to de-emphasize the role of alcohol in fraternity life took off in December, 1983, when the House of Delegates of the National Interfraternity Conference, representing most of fraternities in the United States, adopted a resolution to combat what it called the “increasing consumption and abuse of alcoholic beverages.”

Ellen Thomas, UCI’s new sorority and fraternity adviser and alcohol education coordinator, was present at that Kansas City, Mo., conference. The adoption of this unprecedented anti-alcohol stance, Thomas said, was all the more remarkable because the National Interfraternity Council, unlike it’s sorority counterpart, rarely adopts resolutions because each fraternity belonging to this organization jealously guards its prerogatives to govern its internal affairs.

Yet, the Interfraternity Council felt compelled for a variety of reasons to seek “moderation” of alcohol consumption. Thus, it recommended the implementation of non-alcoholic fraternity rush. And for the remainder of the academic year, the council flatly forbade fraternities from holding “open” alcohol parties--those with unrestricted access.

Armed with the council’s resolution, more than 100 of the nation’s largest colleges have since implemented mandatory dry rush, according to the Fraternity Newsletter. This number has doubled in the last year alone, said UCI’s Thomas, who has closely monitored this development.

(National sororities historically not only have prohibited wet rush, according to college administrators, they also have imposed a ban on serving alcohol in sorority houses at any time. However, Chapman only has local sororities and at least four of the five served alcohol at one or more of this year’s rush functions.)

Mandatory Dry Rush

Last fall, Cal State Fullerton put in place a mandatory dry rush for its 10 fraternities; their compliance is monitored by city and campus police at the fraternities’ expense, Nudd said. The ban was prompted because the weeklong rush in past years had turned into what Nudd described as “giant, destructive block parties attended by several hundred, many of whom were not even students at this university--or had no intention of pledging a fraternity; they just showed up for free beer.”

Ray Spencer, president of Cal State Fullerton’s Inter-Fraternity Council, recalled: “When this change (dry rush) was made last year, it seemed drastic, and there was a lot of negative reaction.

“But the nationals were pushing for dry rush, and we here at Cal State Fullerton have had a year to learn to live with the change. This year there were no complaints about (the mid-September) dry rush.”

By comparison, UCI and Chapman are gradually moving toward a dry rush system on a volunteer basis. Four years ago, UCI’s Inter-Fraternity Council adopted a “partially” dry rush; its six fraternities do not serve alcohol during the first half of its two-week rush.

Two of UCI’s fraternities have gone further. Ever since Kappa Sigma was formed three years ago, it has had dry rush. And this fall, under a mandate from it’s national headquarters, Chi Psi conducted dry rush, said Allen Gershenson, president of the campus’s Inter-Fraternity Council who personally supports dry rush.

Chapman’s administration this fall urged--but did not mandate--that it’s six fraternities and five sororities hold dry rush. Only two of it’s 11 Greek organizations complied.

‘Weak’ Drinks Served

However, most of the remainder held “semi-dry” rush, in which alcohol was served only on a night when a sorority and fraternity held a joint party or the Greek organization only served what was characterized as “weak” wine coolers or vodka and fruit punch concoctions.

While the fraternities and sororities that continue to hold wet rush say they are compelled to serve alcohol to attract pledges, contrary evidence, such as that from the Sig Eps at Chapman, is coming in as the phenomenon of dry rush spreads through the United States.

UCI’s Thomas, who previously held a similar position at Texas Tech University, recalled that when that institution implemented mandatory dry rush last year, nearly everyone on the 25,000-student Lubbock, Tex., campus was surprised that the percentage of freshmen pledging fraternities jumped from 56% to 82%.

“When a fraternity gets rid of alcohol as a tool for rush, it doesn’t make the unconscious mistake of marketing a fraternity as nothing more than a drinking club--which turns a lot of people off from pledging,” Thomas said.

Voicing a common view among Orange County college administrators and most fraternity presidents, Randy Lewis, UCI’s student activities director, said: “When you get rid of alcohol at rush parties, you also get rid of the ‘free riders’--the ‘here for beer’ rushees--who just show up to drink and party; they have no intention of pledging any fraternity.

“You get fewer guys at rush parties. But this turns out to be a blessing in disguise because the guys who show up are truly interested in joining a fraternity and are willing to be sold on pledging a particular house; of course, it’s members have to get down to the nitty-gritty of telling a rushee on an individual, personal basis--which a smaller crowd allows--what’s special about their fraternity and that if he pledges their fraternity, he’ll fit in.”

Cal State Fullerton’s Inter-Fraternity president Spencer recalled that his house, Delta Sigma Phi, was concerned last fall when only 300 people showed up during the first night of dry rush, rather than the usual 400.

Turnout Dropped

And after the first night crowd saw with its own eyes that, indeed, no alcohol was being served, the turnout dropped by half--to 150--the following night and to 75 on the third night of rush.

Yet, Delta Sigma Phi ended up with 35 pledges--which Spencer said was the largest class in its history and the third largest pledge class out of the 101 chapters of Delta Sigma Phi, whose official policy is to encourage--but not mandate--dry rush.

While UCI, Cal State Fullerton and Chapman have taken steps over the years to assure that their students comply with state law restricting drinking to those over 21, John Moore, Chapman’s residence life director, acknowledged: “We are not so naive as to believe our enforcement efforts are completely successful.”

The fact that students under 21 continue to drink on campus is an issue that Moore said colleges throughout the nation are urgently wrestling with because of the growing threat of costly lawsuits should intoxicated students cause personal injury or property damage. Overall campus awareness about the risk of alcohol misuse has been raised by groups such as Chapman’s Boost Alcohol Consciousness Concerning the Health of University Students (BACCHUS), which promotes responsible social drinking.

And both Chapman and UCI have set up special task forces to come up with solutions on how most effectively to educate students on socially responsible drinking and to examine ways to improve monitoring of student drinking.

Frequent Concern

Echoing a frequently voiced concern of students, Erin Savala, the president of Chapman’s Gamma Delta Kappa sorority, said: “I think the alcohol issue we’re most worried about is drinking and driving. We’ve had friends who’ve been hurt--and killed--in alcohol-related accidents, and the news is filled with stories about accidents like these.

“Everybody likes to party and have fun, but getting behind the wheel of a car when you’re drunk isn’t part of having a good time,” said Savala, who explained that while her sorority still holds wet rush, it strongly supports groups that promote responsible drinking.

“That’s why our sorority’s agreed to work weekends with BACCHUS on its drunk-driver hot line and pickup service. And we’ve raised money and passed out flyers for MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers).”

Attempts to decrease drinking is not limited to Greeks who, despite a resurgence of membership from the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, still make up a minority of college students.

But it’s true that a slightly greater percentage of Greeks drink than do students in general, said Cal State Fullerton’s Nudd. He noted that the most reliable data shows that while 74% of fraternity and sorority members drink, the general student body lags behind at 65%.

Even after rush is over, UCI fraternities are trying to reduce the risks of alcohol consumption. Inter-Fraternity Council president Gershenson notes that his fraternity, Kappa Sigma, has adopted the increasingly common “buddy system.” It prevents drinking and driving because the driver of the car has nothing to drink, either because he’s a non-drinker or has voluntarily abstained for the evening.

When Kappa Sigma gives parties, Gershenson said it collects car keys of all guests as they arrive; if it appears that the driver is intoxicated when he or she attempts to leave, the keys are not returned. Instead, a non-drinking fraternity member gives the inebriated guest a ride home.

When the Chapman chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha (Pikes) last spring held what it billed as the largest off-campus fraternity party in the school’s history, it provided free bus shuttle service between the dance site and the campus to prevent students from drinking and driving, said Pikes president Yesid Cuecha. “We had 950 people there and not one traffic ticket was issued,” Cuecha said.

At Cal State Fullerton, Nudd said fraternity parties are closed to all except university students, who are required to show campus identification cards. “Fraternities that serve alcohol to minors and are caught get into big trouble.”

The most dramatic enforcement of this rule occurred last month when Nudd revoked Cal State Fullerton’s recognition of the Delta Chi Fraternity for a year. This first suspension of a fraternity in the university’s 25-year history sent shock waves through Greek organizations, not only on the Fullerton campus but also at Chapman and UCI, interviews show.

Perhaps the leading student group promoting responsible drinking is the nationwide Boost Alcohol Consciousness Concerning the Health of University Students (BACCHUS), whose acronym also is the name for the Greek and Roman god of wine and revelry. BACCHUS was founded in 1976 at the University of Florida and has 120 chapters at colleges throughout the country.

The UCI BACCHUS chapter last February joined forces with the Associated Students of UC Irvine to launch the “Safe Rides” program, said university spokeswoman Elaine Beno. This free shuttle service is manned on weekends by volunteer students who pick up classmates within a 10-mile radius of the Irvine campus if they call the Safe Rides hot line to say they need a lift home from a party because they’re too intoxicated to drive, Beno said.

A similar service is offered by Chapman’s BACCHUS chapter. During rush week, BACCHUS’s campus chairman Scott Miller and some of the organization’s 75 members manned an information table adjacent to a wrecked car to graphically illustrate the risks of drinking and driving.