Ousted
fraternities sport new attitudes,
return
to IU campus
BLOOMINGTON,
Ind. -- At least eight fraternities were
booted off the Indiana University campus
a few years ago, with several shut down
by their own national organizations.
But some
of the groups are now returning,
starting new chapters and recruiting new
members.
"Right
now, what we're seeing is the chapters
that left campus for behavioral reasons
are coming back -- and being welcomed
back by the university," said Steve
Veldkamp, assistant dean of students.
And it's
not your older brother's frat house that
the groups are trying to organize,
Veldkamp said. With structured programs
called "Men of Principle" and
"Balanced Man," the new
fraternities said they are emphasizing
leadership, academics and service.
Currently
17 percent of IU undergraduates belongs
to one of its several dozen fraternities
and sororities. But the organizations
have gone through cycles: rapid growth
in the 1950s, contraction in the 1960s
and '70s, then another boom in the
1980s.
In the
past decade, national fraternities, in
particular, have been reassessing the
role they want their chapters to play.
Driven by public scrutiny, liability
concerns and a simple desire to live up
to their own rhetoric, they have tried
to move away from the "Animal
House" image.
"We'd
lost focus," said Pete Smithhisler,
vice president for media and community
relations of the North-American
Interfraternity Conference, an
Indianapolis-based organization of 64
national fraternities. "We lost
identity when the definition of
fraternity was focused more around
socializing and partying than around
brotherhood, leadership, service and
academic success."
At IU
two students died -- in 1998 and 2001 --
after drinking at fraternity parties.
Several chapters were disciplined for
violations of the university's alcohol
policy, but in most cases it was the
national fraternities that revoked
charters and closed the houses.
Excessive
drinking and partying produced a public
backlash, Smithhisler said. But possibly
a bigger factor has been the changing
outlook of college students, the
so-called "Millennials" who
have entered college since 2000 and are
more achievement-driven and
success-oriented.
"I
think the strongest difference is the
cohort of students in college right now
-- what they're interested in, what they
value and how they've grown up,"
Smithhisler said. "Because of that,
I think we need to emphasize different
aspects of the fraternity
experience."
Veldkamp
said students who want to join a
fraternity for the party scene can still
find what they want.
"There's
a group of organizations operating that
way and a group of organizations not
operating that way," he said.
But he
said fraternities that left campus and
are returning -- "recolonizing,"
in the jargon of Greek organizations --
tend to recruit students seeking a
different experience.
Members
said that's the case with Beta Theta Pi,
whose IU house was shut down in 2001. It
began recolonizing in 2003; its members
now live in various locations off
campus, but the organization is making
plans to build a new house by 2007.
That's
also the goal for Sigma Phi Epsilon,
according to officials of the Richmond,
Va.-based fraternity.
That
fraternity closed its IU chapter without
warning in December 2002, angering
students and leaving them scrambling for
housing during the week of final exams.
Officials
said they closed the house because of
"behavioral and financial
issues," including declining
membership and a $1.3 million debt. A
bank foreclosed on the house, but the
national organization bought it back at
a sheriff's sale.
Delta
Kappa Epsilon leased the boarded-up
house last year. This fall Delta Kappa
Epsilon will share the space with Kappa
Sigma, which is building a new house on
North Jordan.
But
Sigma Phi Epsilon will start recruiting
for a new chapter next spring, planning
to eventually move back into the house,
said Bayard Gennert, director of
residential life for the national
organization.
The new
chapter, he said, will dispense with the
"pledge" model of recruitment,
in which new members are expected to
prove themselves to become active
members.
"It's
a lot more than just a social
experience," Gennert said.
"It's really about how to have the
best life experience."
Distributed
by The Associated Press
