Social studies but not many books

Sure, there are those pesky academic matters to tend to, but the main part of the college experience, at least for the highly social students at Cyprus-Rhodes University, is partying. There’s licking salt off the exposed tummy of a scantily clad coed and doing a shot of tequila 101. And there’s the master’s seminar in frat president and most sought-after pledge in various stages of undress.

The parties are amusing enough on their own, but what makes ABC Family’s new teen drama “Greek,” premiering tonight, interesting is that Rusty (Jacob Zachar), a geeky freshman with a pronounced interest in polymers, is the kid brother of Casey (Spencer Grammer, daughter of “Frasier’s” Kelsey Grammer), the heiress apparent to the top sorority.

Casey is polished, savvy and well connected -- and so embarrassed by her nerdy brother. (Though the siblings led separate lives, they will grow closer at Cyprus-Rhodes, where the politics and jockeying for position seem realistic.)

The bucolic setting for the school is somewhere in the Midwest, and the action, at least in the pilot, unfolds in gracious Greek houses. In the pilot, Rusty decides he wants to pledge -- he spent his high school years studying and has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to fun -- and begins visiting different fraternities. In this way, the audience is introduced to the other students, sure to pop up in later episodes. Aside from the siblings, a most intriguing character is Calvin (Paul James), who seems to be whatever anyone wants him to be and harbors more than a few secrets.

Casey, meanwhile, is assigned the task of enticing a senator’s daughter, Rebecca (Dilshad Vadsaria), to pledge her sorority, Zeta Beta Zeta. When not on task, she’s dealing with her boyfriend -- the manipulative Evan (Jake McDorman), who cheats on Casey with Rebecca -- and her ex, Cappie (Scott Michael Foster), the president of a fraternity whose members seem determined to permanently alter their blood-alcohol levels.

Ah, college.