School Targets Alcohol Abuse : Students: UC Berkeley considers new regulations for fraternities and sororities after drinking-related deaths.

When George Wolf III entered UC Berkeley as a freshman in 1987, he figured that as long as he was going to be a student he might as well have some fun. So he joined the Sigma Pi fraternity.

The social life more than lived up to his expectations. Wolf remembers the “wild, drunken revelries” and the “spirit of raunch”--”all the stuff you see in the movies.” But now he’s afraid that, after four students were killed recently in alcohol-related incidents at Greek houses, the party is about to come to a sobering halt.

In response to those deaths, UC Berkeley is considering a number of measures to limit alcohol use among fraternity and sorority members, including requiring an adult adviser to live in every Greek house.

“Live-in advisers would never work in our system,” said Wolf, a 21-year-old senior majoring in history. “People join fraternities because they like the idea of a bunch of guys living on their own, and having live-in advisers defeats the purpose.”

But university officials don’t agree.

“We are trying to avoid circumstances in the future that could lead to physical danger for students,” said Francisco Hernandez, UC Berkeley’s dean of student life. “The current system is inadequate because it allows for alcohol abuse. It’s clear that basic reforms have to be made.”

Live-in advisers isn’t the only measure the university is considering. Under a plan outlined by administrators, fraternity and sorority members would have to limit the number of parties they hold, institute mandatory alcohol-awareness seminars for all new members and step up enforcement of existing rules against underage drinking.

Fraternity and sorority members said they support many of those steps. But they are vehemently opposed to live-in adult advisers. Fraternity members like Wolf say adult supervisors would spoil the spirit of “brotherhood” and collegiality they treasure inside their houses.

If the restrictions are enacted, Berkeley’s Greek system--which has 3,200 members in 48 fraternity and 20 sorority chapters--would see its freedom severely curtailed.

Until now, the Greek system, which owns its own houses, has regulated itself. But negotiations are under way between Greek leaders and university officials that will result in a binding “memorandum of understanding.” The new policy is to take effect next fall, administrators say.

University officials argue that stricter guidelines are necessary because of several tragic incidents that occurred during the past year.

In September, a fire destroyed the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity house, killing three students who may have been unable to escape the blaze because they were legally intoxicated, according to a coroner’s report. Then in February, a freshman who had been drinking heavily fell to his death from a fire escape at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house.

“We’re not trying to take over the Greeks,” said Alan Kolling, assistant dean of student life. “That’s nonsense. We’re tying to get them to voluntarily abide by certain rules. Nothing we’re doing is overly intrusive.”

But some Greek members complain that they are being singled out as the culprits for an alcohol problem they say plagues the entire campus.

Marc Jensen, vice president of the campus Interfraternity Council, said the alcohol-related deaths “could have happened anywhere.” University dormitories, he said, “have plenty of drug and alcohol use. You can’t just target the Greek system, which is what they’re trying to do.”

University administrators reject the charge that they are singling out the Greek system. “We already regulate alcohol consumption in the residence halls,” Kolling said. “You can’t walk around with liquor in dormitories with the same freedom as in Greek houses.”

Live-in advisers are already established at many colleges, especially among sororities. At UC Berkeley, for example, most sororities have had adult supervisors for decades, said Dana Kirlen, president of the College Panhellenic Assn.

But it is still considered unusual for fraternities to have live-in advisers. Among major California colleges, neither Stanford nor UCLA has adults living in their fraternity houses, representatives of those schools said. An exception is USC, where most fraternities and almost all sororities have had live-in advisers, usually graduate students, for more than 30 years.

“Colleges with live-in advisers are still a minority, but there’s no doubt they’re becoming more popular,” said Kenneth Taylor, USC’s director of residential and Greek programs. “People are seeing they’re a way of dealing with (alcohol) problems in a more positive light.”

Still, fraternity and sorority members at UC Berkeley believe that introducing live-in advisers would only harm their already-battered Greek system.

The fraternities and sororities, they note, almost went out of business in the 1960s, when the counterculture reigned here and most students refused to join traditional social organizations. The Greek system enjoyed a rebound during the 1980s, but membership has since fallen again. The number of new students joining Greek houses last year was half of what it was in 1988, and a third of the 1986 figure, Greeks leaders say.

“At Berkeley we’ve already had a lot of problems with small ‘pledge’ classes, and a thing like (live-in advisers) would really hurt us,” said Christopher Coon, vice president of the Alpha Gamma Omega fraternity. “That would case a lot fewer people to ‘rush’ “--that is, to take part in the fall ritual of joining fraternities and sororities.

But Hernandez said he thinks “parents want their children to be safe on campus, so having live-in advisers shouldn’t hurt them in recruitment. Recruitment hasn’t been hurt in sororities because of live-in advisers.”