REGIONAL REPORT : Rush to Fraternities, Sororities Slows : Colleges: Image problems and rising education expenses are blamed for the decline in membership. Groups’ efforts to change ‘animal house’ behavior are ignored, their leaders say.

After a boom in the 1980s, college fraternities and sororities in Southern California and around the nation find themselves in a less hospitable era. Membership is significantly down on some campuses as the so-called Greek letter clubs struggle with problems of recession, regulation and image.

At Cal Poly Pomona, overall enrollment in fraternities and sororities has dropped about 40% over the last four years, officials report. During the same period, Greek membership has declined about 20% at San Diego State and UCLA, and about 10% at USC.

At a few other schools, such as UC Santa Barbara and Cal State Fullerton, fraternities and sororities continue to grow, but at slower rates than during the early and mid-1980s, when the clubs shed their unhip image and regained the clout they had before the Vietnam War.

“There is a concern. But I don’t think it’s time for panic,” said Dan LaFrance, president of UCLA’s Interfraternity Council.

Fraternity leaders say they are worried that membership could be further hurt by recent publicity about a brawl between members of two USC fraternities and a furor at UCLA over a fraternity songbook that advocates violence against women. The clubs contend that their efforts to combat “animal house” behavior have had some successes but have not garnered the same attention.

The main reasons for the membership decline, fraternity and sorority leaders contend, are the sluggish economy and tuition increases that leave potential members with less money for dues and social fees. Apart from living expenses, those costs can be more than $200 a month, which may seem too expensive even for the lifetime friendships and career contacts that Greek memberships promise.

In addition, recruiting is tougher in the changed ethnic mix on Southern California campuses, especially among the increased numbers of students from immigrant families that have no tradition of joining fraternities, experts say. For others, ex-hippie parents may have passed anti-fraternity feelings on to today’s freshmen and sophomores.

“It could be generational,” said Berky Nelson, student programming director at UCLA. “The children of the ‘60s people are in school now and the parents were less likely to have been in fraternities and sororities themselves, as opposed to students a few years ago who were children of the ‘50s people.”

Although such charges infuriate fraternity members, critics of the Greek systems consider the clubs centers for anti-intellectualism, hard drinking, sexism and even violence.

Fraternity officials contend that they are unfairly smeared by widespread publicity about such incidents, which they say are rare. Fraternities’ efforts to build character, improve leadership and promote charitable works are usually ignored, they say.

“No doubt such incidents are troubling and dangerous to the image of fraternities. Unfortunately, it’s just a few members who are damaging the reputation of the vast majority of students who are having a good experience and achieving their goals. We don’t hear about those people,” said Jonathan Brant, executive vice president of the National Interfraternity Conference in Indianapolis, which represents 400,000 men in 5,300 chapters on 800 campuses in the United States and Canada.

Michael Reinstein, president of USC’s Interfraternity Council, agreed. “The perception in the media that we are a bunch of animal houses is a crock,” Reinstein said. “There is obviously a bias (against fraternities) and there always has been that bias.”

Two USC houses--Alpha Tau Omega and Sigma Alpha Epsilon--have been suspended from official university activities while an investigation continues into the March 7 fight that brought a police helicopter over Fraternity Row and left one young man hospitalized with a concussion.

At UCLA, officials are reviewing circumstances of the Phi Kappa Psi songbook, which provoked outrage among many women on campus but was defended by members as a joke. That fraternity is under suspension from campus activities because of alcohol violations last year at a party.

Two years ago, similar songbook lyrics of a UC Santa Barbara fraternity provoked a furor. No disciplinary action was taken because it was deemed an off-campus matter.

In September at Cal State Long Beach, Sigma Phi Epsilon held a controversial rush party in the student union featuring a stripper and whipped-cream wrestling. As a result, their national organization expelled 30 of the 43 Long Beach members and the university put the fraternity on probation, banning its parties for two years.

At UC San Diego last month, Sigma Alpha Epsilon members formally apologized after the contents of their chapter calendar were publicized by the student newspaper. The controversial calendar displayed a drawing of a woman with a monster face between her spread legs, accompanied by a lewd phrase that warned men to use condoms.

Whether overall membership in fraternities and sororities might be affected by such publicized incidents is debated.

Jason Snell, editor of the UC San Diego Guardian, the campus newspaper, said he doubted that the calendar incident changed many opinions.

“The attitude for those who have always disliked the Greeks is that it’s just more of the same and it’s nothing surprising,” Snell said. “For the people who are in the fraternities, I think that either it doesn’t bother them or the only thing that really bothers them is the bad press.”

Greek system leaders worry that they may lose some members because of the controversies. But they also note that they probably have lost more potential members because of new rules and heightened self-policing aimed at discouraging alcohol abuse, hazing and sexual harassment.

“There is not that animal house atmosphere anymore. So a lot of people who wanted to join for that atmosphere won’t because the fraternities are not satisfying their need for alcohol,” said Vickie Geary, Greek Affairs coordinator at Cal Poly Pomona.

Partly in response to liability fears, national fraternity sponsoring organizations and colleges have tightened regulations and become more aggressive in suspending or disbanding chapters.

Since last summer, poor behavior and low grades of two fraternity chapters at San Diego State--Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Tau Kappa Epsilon--prompted their national sponsoring fraternity to shut them down for two years.

Most pledge rush parties at Southern California schools have stopped serving alcohol and, increasingly, open beer kegs are being replaced at other parties by bartenders or “bring your own bottle” policies that presumably cut down on drinking. Some schools, such as USC and UC Berkeley, limit Greek parties to Friday and Saturday nights--new policies that have stirred much debate.

A nightmare scenario came true last year at UC Berkeley, hastening the adoption of tougher rules governing Greek life. A fire destroyed the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity house, killing three students who may have been unable to escape because, according to a coroner, they were intoxicated. A few months later, a freshman who had been drinking heavily fell to his death from a fire escape at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity.

While officials at USC and UC Berkeley say that conduct has improved this year, some fraternity members privately concede that such rules may only drive parties off campus, heightening the possibility of drunk driving.

“Much of what we deal with in terms of disciplinary actions stem from the use and abuse of alcohol. While UCLA has a very strong policy, . . . it has been very difficult to monitor and to get compliance from the fraternities,” said Christel Fishburn, UCLA’s judicial affairs officer and former director of its fraternity and sorority relations.

Despite the controversies and some membership declines, fraternities and sororities promise to remain a fixture of life at many campuses.

“You’re here in Riverside, in the middle of the desert, what else can you do?” asked Scott Singer, president of Alpha Tau Omega’s chapter at UC Riverside. “It’s nice to be able to walk on campus and see a lot of people you know.”

Contributing to this report were Times staff writers Denise Hamilton in the San Gabriel Valley, Patrick J. McDonnell in Riverside, Donnette Dunbar in Orange County, Julie Tamaki in San Diego, and correspondents Jennifer Packer in Berkeley, John Pope in Long Beach, Matthew Fordahl in Westwood and Larry Speer in Santa Barbara.