Commonly, the colleges themselves own the houses and lease them to the fraternities. All too often, the sort of activities in which members engage is grounds for a termination of the lease. While the Greeks will not go without a public relations battle and a legal challenge, situations of this sort represent just the kind of case that colleges will want to take on.
These are the win-win cases that get rid of the offending fraternity and send a message to the campus and community at large that this sort of behavior will not be tolerated. Law professor Peter Lake of Stetson University College of Law in Florida advises parents of college-bound students to carefully consider the realities of heavy student drinking at prospective colleges: Strict policies aimed at high-risk or underage drinking sometime coexist with high rates of high-risk alcohol use—so-called “binge drinking.”
Thus, a school with tough policies is not necessarily one with a safer culture; in fact, my work has shown that patterns of high-risk alcohol use mutate very quickly around disciplinary rules aimed at those patterns.
For instance, it is not uncommon for students to pack up and move their high-risk drinking off campus to avoid tougher oncampus rules, or to leave highly regulated fraternities in favor of living arrangements—usually off campus—that are more conducive to out-of-control partying. Therefore, parents and students must be proactive and carefully consider the drinking culture at colleges being considered.
