Positive fraternity newspaper artice.
So long, Animal House
Today’s frat houses aren’t the free-for-all drinking dens of the past
By Dean Lisk
The Daily News
The noise coming from guys cheering and hollering at the television in the lounge is too much for Ryan Hurley. He gets up from the splintered wooden bench on the deck behind Phi Delta Theta House in Halifax and closes the door.
There are a few similarities between Phi Delta Theta on Seymour Street near Dalhousie University, and the fictional Delta in the classic film Animal House.
The guys are still there, lounging on sofas and chairs, arranged like bleachers in front of the action movie on TV. The only things missing are the foaming kegs and empty beer bottles.
Rather than being mismatched, vomit stained and dog eared like in the movie, the sofas are in pretty good condition, like something ordered from the Sears catalogue only a couple years ago.
The walls, lined with framed achievement awards and pictures of blazer-wearing fraternity members from 50 years ago, lack the thrown food and graffiti sprawled over them seen in the movie.
“A lot of people really don’t know what a fraternity is. They have a perception, like, that we throw parties and drink our faces off,” says Hurley. “If you showed what frat life was like on a day-to-day basis, theses movies would never sell.”
Phi Delta Theta is one of eight fraternities and sororities in Halifax attracting university students.
All male and all female societies, these social organizations were originally created in the 1800s to provide students with better learning atmospheres; instill leadership qualities and provide experience in community service.
In many cases, they also offer housing to members, to emphasize the bonds of brotherhood and sisterhood.
The names of fraternities consist of two or three letters from the Greek alphabet, a tradition that began with the first organization, Phi Beta Kappa, to hide its true name. It’s because of their lettered names that people refer to fraternities, and sororities, as Greek Life and the Greek System.
Fraternities, especially in the United States, have gotten a bad reputation over the years, mainly for wild beer-bashes and underage drinking, but also for deaths involving “hazings,” the initiation ceremonies for new members.
Hurley, a 21-year-old student from New Waterford, says the reality is fraternity life is not about drinking and partying, but more about making friendships, working toward similar goals, and helping the community.
Peter Kelly, no relation to the mayor, is a brother who lives at alcohol-free Phi Delta Theta House. Contrary to misconceptions, he says it is a great place to live and study.
“It’s cheap living, cheap housing; it’s a great atmosphere,” he says.
“One of the main benefits is there are a lot of resources — there are so many people doing all kinds of degrees. They know about the classes, they give you advice. I have won $1,600 worth of scholarships from Phi Delta.”
Without having seen movies like 1978’s Animal House and 2003’s Old School, Kelly says his parents likely had a clearer idea about frats than he did. He jokes his brother, who also went to Dalhousie, joined Phi Delta Theta before him and broke the news to the parents.
“I don’t know what they thought before we joined, but they have been here a few times, met a few of the guys, and know it’s a good place to learn.”
During pledge week at Dalhousie, Adam Kelloway, president of the Alpha Mu chapter of Zeta Psi Fraternity, along with some of the other fraternities and sororities, set up information tables in the Student Union Building to attract new members.
Unlike in Animal House, where rejects from popular Omega House end up joining less popular Delta House, Hurley and Kelloway say their membership is diverse, with students from all backgrounds, social levels, university programs and years.
With only a few people coming up and asking about the chapter, Kelloway says it is necessary in Canada for fraternities to recruit the majority of its members.
“In some schools in the United States, 70 per cent of students are in fraternities,” says Kelloway, a fourth-year student. “I had no idea there were even fraternities in Canada until I started university. It isn’t really well known around here.”
Known for its academic slant, Kelloway says Zeta Psi, whose local chapter was founded in 1939, does not operate a house.
He says the lack of a building means the connections and friendships between brothers is stronger. They are also strong supporters of community groups, including the Muscular Sclerosis Society and the Metro Food Bank.
It’s a reality which “brother” Matt Lofgren understands well. Joining the fraternity while a student at the University of Calgary, the 22-year-old says he did not know anyone when he transferred to Dalhousie.
“I know that if I go to any of the chapters, they are going to take me in and accept me like a brother, give me a place to sleep, and help me out,” he says.
“When I came here they showed me which professors to go to, where good places to eat are, and took me out to see the city.”
In Animal House, Old School and other frat films, houses were put on double secret probation by the dean. One more screwup could get you kicked out of school, and toga parties were the answer to every situation.
In many ways, Phi Delta Theta alumnus Michael Dunn says this was common in Halifax when he graduated from Dalhousie in 1988.
“In the ’80s, we used to have one of the biggest after-hours bars on campus,” explains the communications consultant and president of Alpha East, part of the international fraternal organization. “It was a fraternity where you learned how to run the bar.”
Standing in the lounge on the first floor of Phi Delta Theta, he points to a wall, telling his younger bothers about the good old days and how the house has changed over the years.
“He does this all the time,” one of the other house members says about Dunn’s trip down memory lane.
“The house brought in an alcohol-free policy over three years,” Dunn explains. The process was completed in 1997. “People kicked and screamed, we lost donors, we lost members, we lost support, but we gained these same things back threefold.
“We wanted to start attracting people who wanted to join an organization that was based on the founding principles rather than (because it was) a bar that had rooming available.”
Dunn says in Canada, at least, things have changed. Fraternities have had to change to stay relevant.
Students are coming from alcohol-free graduations in high school, and with their parents are demanding more from their university experience — partly because they are investing so much money.
“You cannot expect a student who has a full time job, a girlfriend, a school load, and God knows if he is also involved in sports or other societies, to come here and piss away his money, time and grades, and then make it all up in their last year.”
While the fraternity has sobered up over recent years, Hurley notes he and his brothers are like any other university students.
There is some boozing it up downtown on the weekend, while others teatotal their way through school.
Kelly and Hurley agree being a member of the fraternity and hanging out with other members at the house to watch movies, listen to music and make communal meals is good fun.
“It’s a blast, we have so much fun, there is always people to hang out with.”
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