Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, September 12, 1994                   TAG: 9409130008
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GREEKS, INDEPENDENTS COPING WITH MIX IN FRAT HOUSES

The top floor of Sigma Chi was taken over this year to house "nonaffiliates," students who are not fraternity members. The first-floor residential wing at Pi Lambda Phi is now home to nonaffiliates as well.

Fraternity brothers are less than thrilled. But so far this semester, the situation has worked out, brothers and nonaffiliates said.

"I think the tensions aren't that bad," said Sigma Chi president Christopher Cobb. "I hear nonaffiliates every now and then make complaints that there was noise, and I'll take care of it and it's settled."

Two of the school's four fraternities are affected by the new policy; the other two had enough members to keep their houses filled. The fraternity houses at Roanoke College are large for a school its size, making it difficult for the chapters to fill them up.

The school built a wall between the downstairs social area of Pi Lambda Phi and the wing where other students live, and there are separate entrances.

A lounge was created for the nonaffiliates, and a washer and dryer were installed. A resident assistant lives on the nonaffiliates' wing.

If membership climbs and the fraternity can fill those beds, the school will knock the wall down, said Mac Johnson, vice president of student affairs.

Pi Lambda Phi has 35 brothers and about 20 nonaffiliates living there; the mix at Sigma Chi is almost evenly split.

Sophomore Josh Markowitz lives in the nonaffiliate wing of the Pi Lam house. He said it has been quiet so far, in part because the fraternity is on social probation and can't throw parties.

Markowitz said he is friends with some of the brothers and doesn't mind living there, but "I'm sure plenty of people here would feel unwelcome."

Nonaffiliates have lived in fraternities for years at Roanoke College, but usually the brothers were able to choose those residents. This year, the school began assigning students to the fraternities and also renamed the wings it took over: "Catawba Hall" in the Pi Lam house, and "Shenandoah Hall" in the Sig house.

It's better than last year, Pi Lams say, when nonaffiliates were mixed in with the fraternity members in the same living area.

At least this semester, fraternity vice president George Steinwald said, "We don't have to come in and see guys we don't even know sitting on our couch that we paid for."

Increased enrollment and stricter rules for joining fraternities are responsible for the new policy. Fraternities are seeing smaller pledge classes because tougher rush rules make it harder for them to fill their houses with brothers. Freshmen no longer can rush - the process of joining a fraternity - in the fall; they must wait until spring semester and must have a 2.0 grade-point average.

There aren't enough male freshmen with 2.0 averages who want to join to keep the houses filled, said Mark Maloney, a Pi Lam and vice president of the Interfraternity Council. And freshmen are allowed to hang out at fraternities only at certain times, so by the time they can pledge, many have lost interest, he said.

"It's cut down our pool of males."

Since the college owns the houses, it can use the space for other residents.

"I'm glad the school owns our houses," Maloney said, "but where there's a positive, there's a negative. For instance, they can build a wall and put in nonaffiliates."Roanoke College is following the national trend of seeing more female students, with 57 percent women on campus, Vice President Johnson said. It used to be 60 percent men.

That means the school must convert what had been housing for men into space for women - and put more men in the fraternity houses.

"With the population shift," Johnson said, "it had gotten so we had to use the houses more. That can create some friction."

Sigma Chis upset about the change urged their alumni to write to college President David Gring this summer to protest the loss of some of their social rooms and dorm rooms.

"It's definitely been a big change, because we lost the whole top floor of dorm rooms," Cobb said. "The brothers and alumni find it a little unsettling."

It's only a few weeks into the semester, but "there's been no problems yet," Steinwald said.

Of course, Maloney added, "We're not off social probation yet."