Five schools test alcohol ban in frats

As part of a national trend toward dry fraternities, five schools are taking the lead in testing the National InterFraternity Council Select 2000 project, which is designed to refocus fraternities on the academic and service aspects of Greek life by banning alcohol from their houses. Southern Illinois University is the farthest along in implementing the code. Alcohol will be banned from all parties held in fraternity houses on the Carbondale, Ill., campus as of next fall, but students will be allowed to have alcohol in their rooms for personal consumption as long as they are at least 21 years old. A complete ban on alcohol in chapter houses will go into effect the following fall, according to SIU Assistant Director of Student Development Katie Sermersheim. The other schools participating in the Select 2000 project are Rochester Institute of Technology and Villanova, Northern Colorado and Florida Southern universities, which are still developing timetables for implementing the code, according to NIFC Executive Director Jonathan Brant. He added that the NIFC organized the Select 2000 project along with representatives of the five schools at its annual meeting earlier this month in Chicago. "Alcohol use has become a pitfall within fraternities," he said. "We felt there was really a need to change the culture of some of our chapters, especially where they were emphasizing alcohol use." Sermersheim said she thinks the Select 2000 project will help the SIU fraternities rediscover the original ideals of the Greek system and lower their insurance rates. "The main goals of the Greek system are scholarship, leadership, service and brotherhood," Sermersheim said. "This will help our Greek system excel and will help our students get back to principles and recognize their fullest potential." She added that the alcohol ban will make the fraternity houses at SIU better places to live. "Brothers will be able to live and learn and use their chapter houses as homes and not just party nests," she said. "This is a program that I firmly believe will help a good Greek system become great." SIU senior Doug Burkott -- the school's IFC president -- noted that the plan is about more than just banning alcohol. "I always tell people to look at the whole thing rather than just the substance-free part," he said. "It is a great initiative and should have been done a long time ago." Sermersheim said the new policy should not be difficult for fraternity members to accept. "They are told what dues to pay on a monthly basis and told what GPA they have to get," she noted. "This is just one more standard." But Burkott said he anticipates that it will take time for fraternities to adjust to the alcohol ban.

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