Fraternity remodels alcohol-free house

It will be the second University of Arizona fraternity to ban alcohol consumption and possession on fraternity property.

The Arizona Daily Wildcat reported in September 1996 that Sigma Nu was the first fraternity on campus to declare itself substance free.

The organization is spending more than $300,000 to refurbish the old place, located at 1745 E. Second St., which is scheduled to be complete before Homecoming this November.

UA's chapter of Phi Delta Theta also will receive a grant of no more than $20,000 from their national organization for being among the first 40 chapters to ban alcohol.

The group is trying to concentrate more on brotherhood and less on inebriation, according to UA's chapter president James Williams, a molecular and cellular biology senior.

"We must get the fraternity back to the basics and forge a brotherhood that exemplifies our principles: Friendship, sound learning and rectitude," said Dr. Robert Deloian, president of the group's general council.

Sororities at the UA have always banned alcohol on sorority property, and Delta Gamma president Krissy Humensky, a marketing senior, said the booze ban gives a better impression of the Greek system.

"You don't need alcohol to have a good time. Being Greek is about more than drinking," she said. "You also don't have the liability factor."

A 1994 study by the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse showed that students living in fraternity and sorority housing drink three times as many alcoholic beverages as other students -15 compared to five a week.

Williams disagrees. "I find that hard to believe. On average, alcohol consumption is the same for all college people," he said.

While the national organization claims the ban is aimed at "encouraging students to focus on learning," the issues of liability and image are also priorities.

"It's the shift in image, both perceived and actual," said Bob Gordon, coordinator of Greek Life programs.

The Greeks as an organization are an easier target for angry neighbors than apartment complexes and houses that throw parties, Gordon said.

Williams said a majority of claims against fraternities are alcohol related.

"These insurance claims do mount up. It's (the ban is) basically risk management," Williams said.

The ban on alcohol may make for a safer environment at the fraternity house, but that does not mean there won't be parties and drinking.

Williams said activities involving alcohol can simply be held elsewhere.

Image and liability may be important, but Humensky said it is more than that.

"By them going dry it shows that they don't need alcohol."