GREEKS: FRATERNITY STEREOTYPES THING OF PAST

John Belushi would feel out of place among Southeast Missouri State University's social fraternities and sororities.

The late actor starred in the movie, "Animal House," in which he portrayed a booze-loving, boorish "frat rat."

But fraternity and sorority leaders at Southeast say the "Animal House" image of Greeks is far from reality these days.

The 11 fraternities and eight sororities at Southeast annually contribute countless hours to charitable causes, including holding fund-raising events.

These days, as with society in general, there's an emphasis on responsible drinking. There's also an emphasis on getting good grades, Greek leaders say.

And hazing, requiring new members to perform mentally or physically humiliating and often silly tasks, is strongly frowned upon. Fraternity and sorority leaders say it has been virtually eliminated on the Southeast campus.

Still, they say, stereotypes die hard.

David Krause, president of the Interfraternity Council at Southeast, said many people in the community and even on campus still have a mistaken image of Greeks.

"They see the John Belushi image and that's all they care about," said Krause, a member of Pi Kappa Alpha, one of the older fraternities on campus.

What they don't see, said Krause, are the community service projects undertaken by Southeast's Greeks and the amount of time fraternity and sorority members devote to campus organizations and activities. Many of Southeast's student leaders are Greeks.

Last year a canned food drive by fraternities and sororities netted over 9,000 pounds of food. The food was donated to the Salvation Army.

The entire Greek system at Southeast "adopted" the local Head Start center last year, with fraternity and sorority members weekly volunteering their time to the pre-school program.

Kathi Mecham, owner of Woody's Greek House in Cape Girardeau, has nothing but praise for Greeks. The store sells exclusively Greek items everything from T-shirts to mugs bearing the names and logos of fraternities and sororities at Southeast.

"It's the most pleasant clientele I could have, plus I really feel they do a lot for the community," she said. "They are a great group of kids."

While Greek membership has been relatively static nationwide, it has been on the increase at Southeast in recent years, said Krause.

About 1,000 students are members of social fraternities and sororities at Southeast, or about 12 percent of the student body.

A number of new chapters have been started at Southeast in recent years.

There are six traditionally black fraternities and sororities at Southeast, which are governed by the Pan-Hellenic Council.

The Interfraternity Council oversees eight fraternities, whose membership is largely white. Four of the eight have off-campus chapter houses.

The Panhellenic Council serves as the governing board for five sororities, which have had chapters at Southeast for years and whose membership is largely white.

All five of the sororities and four of the IFC fraternities have chapter houses in the Greek complex on campus.

The historically black fraternities and sororities don't have chapter houses as such on campus or off campus. They are also smaller in numbers than the traditionally white fraternities and sororities.

Alpha Phi Alpha, for example, is the largest of the traditionally black Greek organizations at Southeast, with 22 members.

In contrast, IFC fraternities generally have 60 or more members on average, while the Panhellenic sororities have around 70 on average.

Tony Douglas, president of the Pan-Hellenic Council and a member of Alpha Phil Alpha, said all three Greek governing organizations on campus prohibit hazing.

The paddling of Greek pledges or requiring them to run naked around Capaha Lagoon are just old stories to today's Greeks.

Hazing is "off limits," said Shantel Smith, president of the Panhellenic Council of sororities and a member of Delta Delta Delta sorority.

Krause said, "Any type of hazing wouldn't be tolerated by us or the university."

"Society doesn't accept silly behavior like it used to," said Teri Hall, Greek life coordinator at Southeast.

Hazing is also against the law. A state law enacted several years ago makes hazing a crime a Class A misdemeanor, said Hall.

The national fraternity and sorority organizations have banned hazing for years, she pointed out.

"For the most part, people know what they shouldn't be doing," she said.

That wasn't always the case.

Hall, who serves as an all-around adviser to Southeast's fraternities and sororities, began her job at Southeast in July 1988.

"My first 16 months here, we suspended four fraternities for a number of different issues," said Hall. One fraternity was suspended for hazing and three for continual violations of the university code of student conduct.

Two of the chapters Sigma Phi Epsilon and Tau Kappa Epsilon are still banned from the university and "they have no national recognition at all," said Hall.

Sigma Phi Epsilon was suspended in December 1988 following an investigation into a female student's complaint that she was sexually abused at what was then the chapter's fraternity house on campus.

In 1989, Tau Kappa Epsilon was suspended for hazing of a student, violations of a student-conduct code and failure to comply with sanctions that had been imposed upon the chapter. The hazing involved paddling of a student by fraternity members.

Of those two chapters, Hall said, "They didn't care about their standards. They didn't care about the impact they had on the Greek system or the university. They didn't want to change their behavior."

Since then, there have been noticeable improvements in the Greek community at Southeast.

Fraternity and sorority leaders credit Hall with helping to foster new attitudes and programs.

"Basically, she has turned this Greek system around since I have been here," said Smith.

Hall, however, gives much of the credit to the students themselves.

"We have really worked to get a sense of who we are in the Greek system and be supportive of each other. We work hard to support each other," she said.

"We have a program called Greek Life 101," said Hall. It's a six-week program for new members to the Greek system. It deals with topics ranging from alcohol abuse to diversity.

"Once a semester, the whole Greek system turns out to go to some type of educational program, whether it be about alcohol or date rape," said Hall.

The Greek system now requires its members to meet minimum grade-point averages.

Hall said efforts are being made this fall to start a chapter of GAMMA, a national alcohol-awareness group. GAMMA stands for Greeks Advocating Mature Management of Alcohol.

Greek groups are not intended to be "social drinking clubs," said Hall. "They are really for personal development."

That's not to say that Greeks don't drink. They do. But Hall and Greek student leaders say efforts are being made to keep drinking under control.

"For the most part," said Hall, "groups don't buy kegs any more."

Smith said, "A lot of parties now are BYOB (bring your own bottle) and they card people."

It used to be that on the final day of "rush," when sororities would select their new members, a "bid day bash" would be held. All the sororities and fraternities would attend the drinking party.

Now, she pointed out, there is no all-Greek drinking party involved with "bid day." Instead, the day is reserved for new members to be with their sorority sisters.

"There is no big rush to go out and go to a party," she said.