Universities crack down on fraternities

New rules mean no wild parties, no pledging

After months of waiting, party night finally arrived on Dec. 2 for the brothers of Phi Kappa Psi at the University of Iowa. But this was no Animal House gathering; it was held in the ballroom at a Hilton Garden Inn.

IDs were checked at the door. Those old enough to drink got plastic bracelets with five pull tabs — one for each beer, wine or hard cider they would be permitted over the next three hours. Hard liquor was banned; Jell-O shots were definitely out. Security guards walked the floor.

The party limped along, and by 10 p.m., an hour ahead of schedule, the staff was cleaning up.

Fraternity misbehavior has frustrated colleges as long as fraternities have been around. But now, amid worries about endemic binge drinking, sexual assault and a startling spate of deaths, schools are going beyond the old practice of shutting down individual houses to imposing broad restrictions on all Greek life.

Activities like fraternity parties and initiations have been suspended or curtailed at colleges including Ball State, Indiana University, Ohio State and the University of Michigan, as well as at least five where deaths have occurred this year: Florida State, Louisiana State, Penn State, Texas State and Iowa, where fraternities and sororities on good behavior have been permitted to hold one strictly monitored party per semester.

Concerns have grown to the point that some Big Ten presidents are inviting counterparts from around the country to a conference in April to talk about how to better control Greek life on campus. The president leading the effort is from Penn State, where one of the uglier deaths occurred, leading to criminal charges for more than two dozen students. A grand jury investigation made public Friday faulted the university for not acting sooner and for ignoring obvious signs of a fraternity culture that had spun out of control.

“There is definitely this moment in time where society is not willing to accept behavior that in the past has been acceptable,” Tracy Maxwell, the founder of HazingPrevention.org, an anti-hazing organization.

Notably, students themselves are beginning to take action.

In some cases, like at Michigan, the restrictions are being imposed not by university officials, but by student-run fraternity councils that oversee Greek chapters. Recognizing that fraternities have a problem, the North-American Interfraternity Conference has proposed a voluntary pilot program that would bar alcohol in the common areas of fraternity houses, except during registered parties served by a licensed vendor.

The moves are an attempt to prove to college officials that fraternities are indeed adult enough to govern themselves.

“Is it a cultural shift?” asked Hank Nuwer, a journalism professor at Franklin College in Franklin, Ind., who studies hazing deaths. “That was the absolute missing link, getting undergraduates on board to police themselves.”

In a tragedy that horrified college administrators, students and parents, a 19-year-old Penn State sophomore, Timothy Piazza, died in February after a hazing ritual at Beta Theta Pi. He had a ruptured spleen and traumatic brain injury. Piazza had been given 18 drinks in less than 90 minutes, and tumbled down a flight of stairs, but fraternity members waited nearly 12 hours to call for help, prosecutors say. Several students have been charged with involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault and others face lesser charges, including hazing.

There is no guarantee, of course, that the new measures will ultimately change fraternity behavior or avert tragedies.