Greek organizations trying to remake image

Fraternities at Ball State are working to remake their images and lose the "Animal House" stigma.

In fall 2001, the university initiated a strict policy on fraternity-sponsored social events that limited parties with alcohol present to the men of the house plus 30 percent of their membership. So if a house had 100 members, it could have no more than 130 people there with alcohol in sight.

After that number was reached, a fraternity could either break up the party or rid the house of alcohol.

To ensure fraternities followed the sanctions, a Student Evaluation Team created by the InterFraternity Council (IFC), was sent out on weekends to monitor house activities. The IFC is comprised of fraternity members who represent Ball State's 10 fraternity chapters.

Senior fraternity brothers say the crackdown on drinking, which is still in effect, has been difficult for many of the men to accept. "A lot of houses didn't want to follow that rule," said senior Dan Layton, a Sigma Phi Epsilon member
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Membership for all Ball State fraternities has dropped from about 930 men a little more than a decade ago to 442 in 2004, a 52-percent decrease.

Most of the brothers say a problem they all face is recruiting men - the "right kind of men," points out Seth Bowers, Sigma Phi Epsilon president - to their organization.

"We realize that [fraternity enrollment] numbers are clearly not at their peak,"said Lynda Wiley, director of Ball State's student organizations and activities.

"But these days, we're competing with a lot of things, namely a student's time," she added. "More students work these days or are a part of other student groups on campus." The university currently has 310 extra-curricular organizations available for students to join.

Nationally, the Indianapolis-based NIC reports that Greek numbers for the 64 fraternities the conference represents are on the rise, after experiencing slumps similar to Ball State's in recent years.

Smithhisler, NIC's vice president for community relations, said 350,000 undergraduate men are current members of NIC fraternities, with 100,000 men recruited annually nationwide. Those numbers are up 10 percent from what they were in the 1990s, he said.

"What makes now a historic time in the life cycle of the country's fraternities is that it is time for all of our organizations to return to their values," he said.

Greek organizations trying to remake image