"Sorority Life" - 2nd season & new show "Fraternity Life"
 

UB students will star in two MTV series

By SHARON LINSTEDT
News Staff Reporter
8/24/2002


Reality television will capture Buffalo's college life this fall, when MTV comes to town to shoot its popular "Sorority Life" series, as well as a new companion show, "Fraternity Life."
University at Buffalo students will be the stars.

An MTV spokeswoman declined to comment on the network's Buffalo plans, saying final agreements have yet to be signed. However, sources familiar with the cable network's Buffalo plans said formal announcements regarding the second season of "Sorority Life" and birth of its fraternal twin are expected next week.

"Sorority Life," which tracks a group of six pledges through the sorority rush experience, made its debut on MTV in June, featuring a group of coeds rushing Sigma Alpha Epsilon Pi, a Jewish house on the campus of the University of California at Davis.

The finale of the current series, which will air Sept. 9, will reveal who gets in and who doesn't make the cut. The show, which airs Monday nights at 10:30, has become one of MTV's five most popular programs, drawing an average of 1.9 million viewers per episode.

For its second season, MTV wanted to give the show an Eastern flavor by choosing an East Coast college or university. After touring a number of schools and meeting with students and sorority representatives, the network decided to focus its camera lenses on a dozen UB students.

The two locally shot series will begin airing in February, and reportedly will run back to back on Monday nights. Though the shows are being shot as separate entities, the 12 students are expected to cross over between the programs to some extent.

TV crews follow the students 24 hours a day, seven days a week through their efforts to become sorority and fraternity members, while simultaneously capturing a student's-eye view of college life. The unblinking cameras portray the good, bad and very real moments of the rush process and college life.

"There's no script. No one knows what will happen along the way or how it will end," said Dennis R. Black, UB's vice president for student affairs. "In the episodes of the current season I've watched, you see college students being college students and living their lives. It's not a picture postcard for UC-Davis."

In expanding its college-life franchise by adding a male pledge counterpart to its programming lineup, MTV will follow a similar formula to its sister program. The real-life cast of "Fraternity Life" will see six would-be frat guys rooming together in a North Buffalo house, with video crews trained on their pursuit of happiness, Greek-dom and passing grades.

The identities of the participating male and female students have yet to be revealed.

While MTV's negotiations have been conducted directly with the involved sororities and fraternities, the school is well aware of the network's interest, Black said.

"We know they are planning to film the reality shows here and that our students will be the focus, but we're not a direct party, just a very interested party," he said.

University officials hope the shows will portray UB in a way that attracts future students, but they are aware that in reality-based television, there are no guarantees the school's best attributes will show up on the screen.

MTV representatives have been busy in recent days securing housing in Buffalo's University Heights neighborhood near the UB South Campus for the two groups of pledges. They also have been looking at temporary office space to serve as local headquarters for the two programs for the next few months.

MTV crews are expected to start shooting the two shows soon after Labor Day, timed with the start of the school year and the kickoff of the rush season.

As the cable network crews set up, Universal Pictures film crews are scheduled to be in town to shoot scenes for the major motion picture "Bruce Almighty," starring Jim Carrey. Shooting is expected to start next week, capturing the sights and sounds of the Buffalo area. Carrey won't arrive until late September, when a key scene on the deck of a Maid of the Mist boat is shot below Niagara Falls. In the movie, Carrey's character plays God for a day when God, played by Morgan Freeman, gets fed up with all the complaining and gives Carrey a chance to show he can do a better job.


http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial...24/1026775.asp

:rolleyes:

Christ.

damn... now i have to cable.

Fraternity Life should be interesting... 6 guys living in the same house??? Most likely freshman...

hold your breath everyone...:rolleyes:

no actually I belive freshmen cannot pledge in fall in Buffalo, only upper classmen and transfers:) Freshmen pledge in spring.

ok i take that freshman comment back :cool: but that would be kinda interesting tho... starting college life with a camera following you around. *gets chills*

To be clear, this is SUNY Buffalo we are talking about, right?

Here's a place to start:

http://www.student-affairs.buffalo.e...grparent.shtml

Looks like they have a six-week cap on the length of the pledge
period in addition to the Freshman rule.

Here's another page:

http://www.student-affairs.buffalo.e...fe/grigc.shtml

Looks like there are at least two or three local fraternities and
sororities that could have been chosen.

Why bother making it two seperate series? Why not just an hour long show called Greek Life? :confused:

Especially if they're going to be overlapping!

Let's all say a little prayer.

Dear (fill in your diety of choice),

Please let the members and pledges/new members of these new groups learn from the first season of Sorority Life. Let them be extremely studious and well behaved. Let them have the sense to manage to ditch cameras before getting crazy. Let the brothers/sisters hand pick the pledges living in house for the least scandilous (sp?) show! Last, but certainly not least, let the brothers/sisters follow their gut and cut any person up front that they feel is there for the wrong reasons!

Thank you. :o

You think people would learn :rolleyes:
Enjoy your 15 minutes, you'll be ridiculed for a lot longer than that.

dear lord... you would really think everyone learned from this time around.. EEK!

OMG!! Did no one learn from this experience?!?

Actually I think I will like Fraternity life better, sorority life was way too cheesy for me. Like. :rolleyes:

LOL,

Ladies, one of these days we are actually going to call on you to clearly delineate what you mean by "disaster," "Train Wreck," "killer of Greek Life", etc.

We are going to ask for clear, substansive answers backed with good facts and reasoning. And most of you are going to be left stuttering. . . or conventiently not answering ;).

The only thing I can say in their defense is that they might have signed the contract BEFORE most of the first season aired, and didn't realize how silly the whole thing could make them look. Other than that . . . who knows?

It's gotten to the point that I'm starting to think the show is hilarious -- it's definitely entertaining. If I was in a sorority I might not be so amused, but as for now . . . ha.

Amen! :cool:

James, what we mean by "train wreck" is something you don't want to look at but you can't seem to look away. We know the show is not going to show us the positive image of Greek life that we hope for, but we can't seem to stop tuning in...just to be sure.

A lot of the fraternities and sororities aren't listed on UB's Greek Page for some reason. I work with an ATO who goes there, so hopefully I will see him before he goes back and see if he knows anything.
I am really surpised that UB would agree to this, with all that is going on with Greek Life in the SUNY system.

i feel uneducated... what is going on with the greek life at UB?

ato is not on campus at UB:) They were kicked off a while ago, but are starting to get back on. Good luck boys:)
And let's not be so mean about it, maybe they have learned and it will be better.

Oh... as usual... dear. :rolleyes:

I hope that, this time around, we see more study hours, philanthropy projects, sisterhood/brotherhood bonding, etc. and not just drinking and partying... but having seen how MTV edits, I'm not holding my breath.

I can see it now:

"This Season on "Fraternity Life": Eta Omicron Iota Xi Multicultural Fraternity"

OK, someone needs to explain this to me. There's:

Buffalo State
University at Buffalo (SUNY)
Buffalo College/University College (SUNY)

Is Buff State affiliated w/ SUNY, or is it like Penn State and the "state colleges" in Pennsylvania?

Looks like there are two institutuions: SUNY Buffalo and Buffalo State
College. UB is shorthand for SUNY Buffalo. It's sort of like
California where the major cities have both a UC and CSU campus,
except that in the case of New York the SUNY system includes both
campuses.

As someone said they're two

Buffalo State College (Buff State)
University of Buffalo (UB)

Both are SUNY schools, however UB used to be a private school and wasn't in the SUNY system until about 20 years ago, I believe.

Kia123, from what the guy I work with told me, ATO is back on campus officially. I dunno :). Most of their members were pledges of AEPi.

Chideltjen, nothing is wrong with the UB system :) What I meant is that since the close of school this past Spring, they're have been many allegations and incidents that have happened with orgs at SUNY schools. SUNY Brockport, Alfred, SUNY Geneseo, UB and I think I read about one more. Plus other upstate NY schools near these ones not in the system. Not that these things dont happen. I would just think that with all the stuff, that UB might have been more wary about this. But like someone said, who knows when the deal was brought to them.

Just to be clear, UB is a SUNY campus, Alfred is not.

I thought both Alfred's were part of the system? In all honesty I was told that at a college night, ha ha.

I just found out MTV came out and talked with a local fraternity on my campus. I'm pretty sure they're not doing it, but I thought it was funny.

the problem with greek life is that there was a death last spring that was slightly linked to a frat party. The fraternity was cleared of all charges though and was able to return to campus later that semester.

Does anyone know who the lucky GLO's are that will be participating?

Jordan is hot.

sorority/fraternity life @ UB
 

I have to agree...I hope this season at UB shows more of what life really is like both pledging a greek org and being a member. I can't believe MTV is doing it in Buffalo though. Being an Alfred Un. alum I know that Upstate NY is less than thrilled with Greeks already and if the season ends up like last season they will have no reason to change their minds. Joining my sorority was the best thing I did while at Alfred and for years we tried to show that area the positives on Greek Life...I hope the show doesn't ruin any progess we made. It can't hurt Alfred though, as well all know Alfred has already eliminated Greeks, and I can see more state schools doing the same. (Just a side note - while reading old messages there was confussion over Alfred - there is Alfred University (a private school with a state sector) and Alfred State College (previously a two year school) however the two schools are planning a merger.

Re: sorority/fraternity life @ UB
 

The SUNY schools cannot eliminate Greeks since they receive state and federal monies.

Re: Re: sorority/fraternity life @ UB
 

Perhaps its different in NY in the SUNY system, but I know of no federal regulation that prohibits schools from eliminating GLO's. In fact, I know of quite a few state schools that do not allow GLO's on campus.

MysticCat -

It's called HR 6.

http://www.dke.org/roar.html

As far as allowing them "on campus" do you mean campus housing, using campus buildings, recruiting on campus? None of the Penna State System schools have Greeks "on campus" either, but it's mostly because the Greeks have no desire to stay there, and there is no room within the campus limits to build houses.

I mean that GLO's are not recognized by the college/university as approved student groups (which results in an inability to use college/university facilities as a group, recruit on campus, etc.).

My read of House Resolution 6 does not change this -- it does not state that educational institutions risk losing federal funds if they do not recognize GLO's. What HR 6 says is that students cannot be subjected to discrimination or official sanction solely because they engage in constitutionally protected association, including belonging to a GLO. In other words, if GLO's are not recognized by the college and Joe Student pledges one anyway, then the college cannot suspend, expel, reprimand or otherwise sanction Joe Student simply because he pledged the GLO. This in no way requires the educational instutition to recognize the GLO as a student group.

MysticCat:

I believe that you are correct.

I work on a college campus, and know that they have actually tossed the idea of getting rid of GLO's around a few times (they won't, but that doesn't stop them from thinking about it).

Technically, they could very well ban GLO's from campus or not recognize them.

They do have the right to do so. They can't stop someone from joining a fraternity, but they can withdrawl their support (money, staff, facilities, perks, meeting space, etc.) Not always, but generally speaking a HQ's will not colonize or operate without the University's support. Just doesn't make for a good partnership, or PR.

Scarry thought, huh?

Do you think it will be on the UK MTV channel? I watched the first one!

Since this thread is 4 YEARS OLD....I'm gonna have to say NO.

Oh okay, my bad! *Stupid Brit*

They should have reruns.. or start a new season
Because I remember watching this show once.. back when I was in Jr High and had no clue what a sorority or a fraternity was.. lol

These shows are dead and should remain dead.

The producers of Sorority Life approached the NPC sororities with this idea and the NPC made it clear to all her chapters that we were not to have anything to do with MTV and sorority life, which is why all 3 seasons of SL were non-NPC sororities.

It's bad enough to see Greek Life represented negatively in works of fiction, so why would you want to see idiots doing just that in real life? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't recall any good coming from any of the SL or FL seasons. While it wasn't the trainwreck I thought it was gonna be, all I remember is the drama and the hazing. But that's what MTV wants, right? You don't really want this representing you and Greek Life, do you?

I cringe at the thought of young girls thinking "Sorority Life" is the real deal and that that's what sorority life is really all about. :mad: