Santa Cruz Sentinel
April 15, 2003
MTV scouting UCSC frat for reality series
By EMILY SINGER
Sentinel CORRESPONDENT
SANTA CRUZ - Whispers at the bus stop and rumors at the gym have
blossomed into full-fledged buzz: MTV is in town.
A production crew for the cable television network is in Santa Cruz
to shoot test footage for the MTV reality series "Fraternity Life."
The UC Santa Cruz fraternity Delta Omega Chi is a candidate for next
season's show.
Crew members, who made a stop in town two weeks ago to scout
locations, are expected to be in town through the week. Cameras will
track the 28 fraternity brothers - and a group of potential pledges -
through this week's rush activities, said junior Evan Beaudu, frat
president. If MTV producers decide the frat is series-worthy, a crew
will film the entire quarter, then edit the footage to air in the
fall.
It's unclear what criteria MTV producers are using. A network
spokesman declined to comment on the filming, saying only that
"nothing has been confirmed."
The reality show follows a single fraternity throughout a three-month
pledge period from rush week - when interested students find out
about the fraternity - to initiation - when pledges become members.
A similar program, "Sorority Life," follows the escapades of a
sorority pledge class. Last year's debut program featured a group of
UC Davis students. A memorable moment occurred when one of the
students, who was pledging a mainly Jewish sorority, said she had no
idea Jews don't believe in Jesus. (She was accepted.)
This season's frat series, airing now, has captured the pranks and
drunken blunders of members of the Sigma Chi Omega house at the
University of Buffalo in New York.
Several Buffalo members experienced the backlash of TV stardom
first-hand when the March 26 episode showed them sneaking into the
local zoo after hours. After seeing the footage, zoo officials
pressed charges.
But UCSC is a world away from fraternity-laden Buffalo, and even UC Davis.
UCSC does not have a recognized Greek system, and there are no
on-campus fraternity or sorority houses. Local frats and sororities
fall under the same classification as other student groups, said
campus spokeswoman Liz Irwin.
"We have no control over what is filmed, and it is the right of
students to appear," said Irwin, who spoke carefully when asked to
comment on a possible Banana Slug edition of "Fraternity Life."
"It's not something we particularly support or endorse," said Irwin
who added she doesn't watch MTV. "But we do recognize that this show,
if aired, would have the UCSC name attached to it, and we would hope
students, and MTV, would represent (the school) in a fair way."
Beaudu said his fraternity lobbied MTV to come to Santa Cruz, in part
to break the stereotypes surrounding Greek life.
"We're trying to show we're really close and really nice guys," said
the Northern California native.
For example, the fraternity is organizing a seminar with other UCSC
Greeks to learn more about state and UC rules governing hazing.
Beaudu said a series on MTV also would help to educate UCSC students
about the Greek system, a challenging goal considering the
traditionally anti-Greek sentiment on campus.
Until 1986, UCSC was California's only Greek-free university. That's
when a fledgling group of young men assembled amid heated criticism
from students and administrators.
UCSC's Greek system has expanded to 14 Greek organizations with close
to 300 students, slightly more than 2 percent of the roughly 12,000
student population.
Delta Omega Chi is hardly all prim and proper, though. The frat's Web
site displays a photo gallery of partying students. One photo shows
two women dancing, with dollar bills tucked in their underwear.
Meanwhile, a Saturday night party at a Santa Cruz house rented by
some of the frat members was broken up by police. Students, hearing
an MTV film crew would be in attendance, showed up en masse.
A group of students interviewed Monday were skeptical when asked
about an MTV appearance by a UCSC frat.
"There really is no Greek life on this campus, so it's kind of a
joke," sophomore Ana Castillo said Monday at the campus Student
Union. "I think it's a bad idea for sororities and fraternities to
get the amount of filming and support that they do. And as a woman, I
think a lot of what fraternities do is disrespectful. I can imagine
students rallying against it."
Beaudu speculated the anti-Greek atmosphere at UCSC could work in the
frat's favor, because MTV "never likes to do the same thing twice."
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