Party Days of Tappa Kegga Brew Are Over for UCLA Fraternities : Rising fees, limits on alcohol use and changing student priorities have hit Greek societies hard.

John Bishai, fraternity president, has planning to do. Not for rush parties and ski trips, but for his house’s survival.

Since 1991, membership at Bishai’s UCLA fraternity, Alpha Tau Omega, has plummeted from 90 to 40 students, threatening to close the chapter.

On a recent Thursday evening, “party night” for most Greek organizations, ATO’s courtyard, once the scene of raging toga parties, lively mixers and familiar alumni gatherings, was as quiet as a nursing home.

“UCLA has become more of an academic school,” Bishai said. “No one knows how to relax and have a good time.”

After the bacchanalia of the 1980s, when numerous fraternities and sororities posted record enrollment, “party hearty” has given way to “party hardly.”

Membership in UCLA fraternities has dropped overall by about 30% in the last four years, according to the organizations. The campus has 22 fraternities, down by six from 1991. Although a few sororities have full houses, the number of organizations has dropped from 21 in the late 1980s to 17 today.

Sororities and fraternities are fighting the trend with dormitory seminars and slide shows on the benefits of Greek life. Information tables have been set up on heavily traveled Bruin Walk.

Some fraternity members attribute the downward trend to new restrictions on alcohol consumption. In the early 1990s, after a national rash of deaths caused by hazing and binge drinking, more than 30 Greek organizations formed the Fraternity Insurance Purchasing Group to create guidelines.

“We were facing rising costs for insurance coverage or, in some cases, even the capability to get insurance coverage at all,” said Wynn Smiley, director of communications for the ATO National Fraternity in Champaign, Ill.

At a party at the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity on a recent evening, evidence of the crackdown abounded.

Bartenders in bow ties handed out beers one at a time. Black-clad security personnel, hired by the fraternity, patrolled the front doorway, checking identification.

In addition to the chilling effect of alcohol restrictions, tougher economic times and rising tuition at private institutions have attracted higher-achieving, more academically minded applicants to UCLA, many of whom show little interest in joining social organizations. The campus denied admission last year to more than 2,000 high school students with a perfect grade-point average of 4.0, said UCLA spokeswoman Kay Cooperman.

Meanwhile, fees at UCLA, which have increased from $534 a quarter in 1991 to $1,388 today, have made it harder for students to pay up to $200 a month in dues and social fees to a fraternity or sorority.

Many of the school’s minority undergraduates hold a stereotypical view of the Greek system as a bastion of affluent white elitists.

“If I were to join, my Indian friends would view me as a sellout,” said Anil Rao, a junior in engineering at UCLA, whose parents emigrated from India.

But Greeks argue that the positive aspects of fraternity and sorority life are often ignored.

“The most positive part of my experiences were not from the parties, the socials and the drinking,” said UCLA fraternity adviser Neil Cadman, a UCLA and ATO alumnus. “The most positive aspect was sitting there at midnight with five other guys just talking about life.”