TAPPED OUT: SEMO FRATS GO ALCOHOL-FREE

Some fraternities have tapped out on drinking parties and more are lining up to go alcohol-free.

Two Southeast Missouri State University fraternities are the latest to join the nationwide trend.

The local chapters of Sigma Nu and Phi Delta Theta are set to go alcohol-free this year, well ahead of the nationwide mandate set by their fraternities' national offices.

Sorority houses at Southeast are already alcohol-free and the university has a no-alcohol policy throughout campus housing.

But students in Greek Housing and other residential units on campus don't always follow the rules.

Sigma Nu's chapter house is a brick, off-campus home in Cape Girardeau. Phi Delta Theta has an on-campus residence, one of a number of buildings in the Greek Housing complex owned by the university and leased to fraternities and sororities.

The national offices of both fraternities have decided to ban alcohol from their chapter houses by July 1, 2000.

That doesn't mean fraternity members won't drink. They just won't drink in the chapter houses.

If they do have an "official" party, they will hire a third-party vendor to serve the alcohol and check IDs.

The third-party vendor policy is already being followed by Phi Delta Theta chapters. The local chapter recently scheduled a party at a local restaurant and bar.

The days of fraternities hosting unrestricted keg parties ended at Southeast in recent years.

Southeast's fraternities are required by its campus governing organization to provide notification of official parties, submit a guest list and secure transportation to get guests to and from off-campus parties.

The high cost of liability insurance is a driving force behind efforts of national fraternities to ban the booze.

"It will save a huge amount of money," said Southeast senior and Sigma Nu member Chadd Peck.

Going alcohol-free lowers insurance premiums and reduces the risk of lawsuits, said Eddie Valek, a Southeast senior and president of Phi Delta Theta.

"What it really is, is a protection measure," said Valek. "Otherwise, everybody's insurance rates will fly through the roof."

To insurance companies, fraternities are a poor risk.

"You are better off insuring a nuclear power plant than a fraternity," said Lisa Fedler, who works for Southeast and advises the school's fraternities.

She serves on a national task force that is promoting alcohol-free policies.

Valek said fraternities have been sued over fatal accidents that involved alcohol.

Nationwide, drunken fraternity men have been blamed for everything from fatal injuries to date rapes and property damage.

"The scary thing is the problems that arise from misusing alcohol can potentially occur anywhere," said Jonathan Brant, executive vice president of the National Interfraternity Conference based in Indianapolis.

The conference represents 63 fraternities with 5,500 chapters on some 800 campuses in the United States and Canada.

Brant said dozens of fraternity chapters have adopted alcohol-free policies in recent years.

The University of Colorado banned alcohol from all functions at fraternity and sorority houses two years ago after booze parties led to rapes and alcohol-related deaths.

By 2000, at least 500 to 600 fraternity chapters are expected to have booted the booze out of their houses, Brant said.

By restricting the booze, fraternities can focus on their organizations' founding principles of brotherhood, scholarship and community service, members of the two Southeast fraternities said.

It also addresses the issue of drinking by minors.

Brant said his conference's fraternities have some 400,000 members, most of whom are younger than 21 and can't legally drink.

A recent study by the Harvard School of Public Health found that 86 percent of men who live in fraternity houses regularly consumed five or more drinks in one sitting.

Sigma Nu's national office has estimated that 70 percent of its chapters' members are under the legal drinking age. Many of them are drinking illegally, according to the fraternity's spring newsletter.

In addition to high insurance costs, the dilapidated condition of many chapter homes from years of boozy parties was a factor in the decision of Sigma Nu's national council, the newsletter said.

That hasn't been a problem at Sigma Nu's local fraternity house, whose members have kept up the place since they moved into it a year and a half ago.

"The neighbors keep us in check pretty much," said Richard Flotron, Sigma Nu chapter president.

The fraternity chapter has some 32 members of which a dozen live in the chapter house.

The chapter started on the Southeast campus in 1993 and moved into the off-campus frat house in 1995.

Phi Delta Theta has about 60 members. Half of them live in the on-campus fraternity house.

Both Valek and Flotron said the alcohol-free policies should improve the public's image of Greek life and strip away the "Animal House" stereotype.