Students going to college in the hopes of finding “Animal House” may soon find no house at all.

In the 1978 John Landis film, “it was the Deltas against the rules … and the rules lost.” Today, universities are cracking down on fraternities and, this time around, the fraternities seem to be losing.

Membership rates at Ball State University fraternities have declined 38 percent over the last 10 years, mirroring a 42 percent decline in fraternity enrollment nationwide. Although some at Ball State blame the university’s new housing plan for the drop in recruitment, studies show that the drop reflects a fundamental shift in perception of fraternity life. Not only has Greek life lost the sense of honor and prestige it held during its peak years in the 1970s and 1980s, but many parents and administrators are working to protect college men from the “beer bash, vandalism and theft” mentality that has plagued fraternities for years.

“The early 90s was the end of a boom period, when lawsuits really started to take a toll,” said Rob Turning, the assistant director of Student Organizations and Activities at Ball State. “It was the end of the 80s’ big party atmosphere when people still put up with ‘boys will be boys.’ Most of it is people are finally holding fraternities accountable for what they were founded to be. The Animal House mentality killed it.”

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Turning, however, places the blame for the defaulted loans on fraternities being unwilling to hold senior members accountable for agreements to live in the house. According to Turning, before the Premium Plan, chapters relied on sophomores and their housing fees to make rent. Now they are being faced with making the seniors pay up or losing their houses altogether

Sophomore Sig Ep member Corey Krause said he knows students who can’t join fraternities because of concerned parents who don’t understand the truth about Greek life. “Shows on MT give fraternities a bad name,” said Krause. “People think it’s just one big party.”

Studies have shown that that at least some of the perception is true. Although several fraternities, such as Phi Delta Theta and Sigma Nu have chosen to go dry nationally, there is still a problem with alcohol abuse at many fraternities. The 2001 Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study (CAS), a national study of college drinking, found that fraternity members were much more likely to drink heavily than their non-fraternity peers. (75.1 percent versus 48.6 percent).

Drinking isn’t the only problem, however. In 1999, the Core Institute reported that about half of students living in a fraternity of sorority house did poorly on a test or project and about 70 percent missed a class – twice the average of all other students.