Groups at Chico State Warned

The president of Cal State Chico has threatened to shut down any fraternity or sorority that doesn’t abide by strict new rules, including a ban on alcohol at recruiting events.

Paul Zingg told a crowd of about 1,000, most of them members of the university’s 37 fraternities and sororities, that the “Animal House” ways would no longer be tolerated.

“To the extent that you are now,” he said, “you will no longer be drinking clubs masquerading as fraternities and sororities.”

Zingg’s hard line against a mounting problem drew an overwhelmingly positive reception from fraternity and sorority members who want to see Greek life continue. The president will decide in the coming weeks whether to abolish the system and banish alcohol from a campus with a decades-old reputation for wild parties.

Besides the recruiting-events alcohol ban, the guidelines -- to take effect in the fall -- include requiring members of sororities and fraternities to maintain a minimum grade point average. The university will also define hazing, already illegal in California, as “any action that involves the abuse, humiliation or embarrassment of another.”

In February, Matthew Carrington, 21, from the Bay Area city of Pleasant Hill died of water intoxication after a Chi Tau hazing ritual in which he was forced to drink 5 gallons of water.

Four members of that fraternity, which had been expelled from campus but continued to operate, have been charged with involuntary manslaughter for their alleged role in the death. If convicted, they could get up to four years in prison.

In March, the university suspended the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity after learning that members appeared in the adult movie “College Invasion 6,” filmed at the fraternity’s off-campus house.