JEANNA DUERSCHERL The Roanoke Times

Reagan Kerr, 21, dances at a fraternity party during homecoming at Washington and Lee University. Restrictions on alcohol use in fraternities and a drinking age that divides the student body in half are pushing parties into neighboring Rockbridge County, where there is little supervision.

W&L students and alumni attend a fraternity party during homecoming weekend. The university has 14 fraternity houses.

Garrott McClintock watches a football game with students and alumni before the start of a band party. McClintock, a senior at W&L, is president of the school's interfraternity council.

Photos by JEANNA DUERSCHERL The Roanoke Times

Beer cans and plastic cups litter a yard in a Rockbridge County neighborhood where W&L students live. For several decades, students at the school have been moving to rental houses in the county.

Photos by JEANNA DUERSCHERL The Roanoke Times

Washington and Lee University has five sorority houses (above) and 14 fraternity houses, and the highest percentage of fraternity and sorority membership in the state.

LEXINGTON -- Mama's Love, a band from Athens, Ga., is rocking a fraternity basement at Washington and Lee University on a Saturday afternoon. Burgers and hot dogs are grilling on the porch.

It looks like student heaven -- except for one little thing:

No beer.

There was supposed to be beer, at least for students 21 and older. But the party was moved to the Sigma Alpha Epsilon house from a nearby park because of rain.

For various reasons, the planned beer garden was axed along the way.

"My office made the decision that alcohol was not going to be served," said Clay Coleman, W&L's director of student activities and Greek life.

Perhaps that explains why there is only a small, if enthusiastic, crowd of students in the fraternity house basement, nodding and pogoing to the beat.

Meanwhile, outside of town, it's easy to see where the real partying goes down.

Atop a Rockbridge County hillside ringed with student rental houses, the grass is littered with beer cans, a couple of empty champagne bottles and hundreds of plastic cups.

This is the reality of student drinking these days at W&L -- a university with a reputation as a party school that has the highest percentage of fraternity and sorority membership in the state.

Over the past few decades, faced with tough new regulations governing alcohol use at fraternities, and a drinking age that went from 18 to 21, the party scene has slowly shifted from fraternity houses bordering campus to rental houses, many of them outside town.

The exodus goes to the heart of the Amethyst Initiative, which seeks to reopen the debate about the drinking age.

Founded by John McCardell, former president of Middlebury College in Vermont and an alumnus and member of the board of trustees at W&L, the Amethyst Initiative asserts that despite the higher drinking age, "a culture of dangerous, clandestine binge-drinking" has developed, "often conducted off-campus."

"Amethyst" is derived from the Greek words for "not" and "intoxicated." The initiative has been signed by 135 college and university presidents and chancellors.

The student exodus from W&L also illuminates the problems fraternities, which have long been associated with drinking, can encounter when they toughen up their own policies -- as many of them, faced with alcohol-related lawsuits, are trying to do.

The executive directors of two national fraternities based at W&L, Larry Wiese of Kappa Alpha and Brad Beacham of Sigma Nu, said their fraternities have not taken an official stand on the Amethyst Initiative.

"I think the dialogue is a good thing," Beacham said.

"Ditto," Wiese said.

W&L President Kenneth Ruscio has signed it.

"It's kind of a funny situation we've created with this drinking age," Ruscio said. "It could be driving behavior farther and farther away and making it more and more difficult to respond to irresponsible drinking. Students drink more than they should. They drink in ways that aren't really responsible.

"I think it's time to look at whether it's achieving what we want it to achieve."

No more Animal Houses?

Fairly or unfairly, Greek organizations, and particularly fraternities, have long been associated with drinking.

The 1978 movie "Animal House," starring John Belushi, painted an uproarious picture of underachieving alcoholics throwing endless toga parties.

Serious academic studies have shown a link between Greek life and drinking as well.

"Heavy drinking by this population represents a significant public health problem," concluded a study published in the Journal of College Student Development in 1997, while a 2001 Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study found that nearly 75 percent of students living in fraternity or sorority houses binge drink.

Beacham said the school's own studies show students in Greek organizations "compare quite favorably" with other students when it comes to binge drinking. Still, "I don't think you'll find anyone who will dispute the misuse of alcohol is a challenge," he said.

Washington and Lee University, with its high participation in Greek life, has appeared on short lists of schools whose students appreciate a good time.

But the overall picture is more nuanced. W&L also appears on lists of the best schools in America -- U.S. News and World Report recently ranked it 14th among liberal arts colleges.

A private school of 1,770 undergraduates, where tuition runs $37,990 a year, W&L lists Nobel Prize winners, writers, artists, university presidents, U.S. senators and 14 Rhodes scholars among its graduates.

Retired Sen. John Warner went to Washington and Lee. So did U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell and television journalist Roger Mudd. "The Bonfire of the Vanities" author Tom Wolfe is an alumnus. Novelist Tom Robbins, who wrote "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues," attended for two years, but left after being ousted from his fraternity, by various accounts. He allegedly threw biscuits at his house mother.

Both students and administrators say stereotypes of hard-drinking Southern boys and girls more interested in partying than academics no longer hold true here, if they ever did.

"There's a lot demanded of us, inside and outside the classroom," said Garrott McClintock, a senior from Tunica County, Miss., who is president of the school's Interfraternity Council.

"You don't exactly have the option of drinking every night," said Francis Smyth, 21, of Baltimore.

Both students live in rental houses in Rockbridge County.

At the same time, no one denies that students here like to socialize. Perhaps no other school in Virginia is more heavily invested in fraternities and sororities than W&L, where membership in Greek organizations is 76 percent.

Virginia Tech has 17 percent membership and Roanoke College 20 percent, according to school figures.

Though Virginia Tech has a much smaller percentage of students involved in Greek life than W&L, it faces some of the same problems when it comes to alcohol use and abuse.

"They have their houses, and they have their party houses," noted Steven Clarke, director of Tech's Alcohol Abuse Prevention Center.

"That's something that happens here. When you crack down really hard on campus, then they can move into your community. They can create problems in other neighborhoods."

"I think that's an issue that every campus faces," said Gene Zdziarski, dean of students at Roanoke College. "The unintended consequence is that you drive it underground and off campus."

Clarke also said fraternities are "the number one source of alcohol for freshmen in the first semester" at Virginia Tech. He said the university does "very little" supervision of drinking at off-campus fraternities -- and most of Tech's fraternities are located off campus.

"Once you accept some control, you're also taking responsibility. There may be liability issues," he said.

Fraternity Renaissance

Reasons for high membership in fraternities and sororities at W&L aren't hard to find. W&L is a small school in a small town. Students say their entertainment options are limited.

"There are no real bars to go to," said Cristin Quinn, a 21-year-old senior from Beaumont, Texas. "It's pretty much making your own fun."

The university came down foursquare behind Greek life in the early 1990s, spending $13 million on a "Fraternity Renaissance" in which it spruced up more than a dozen buildings and assumed ownership of all Greek housing.

The Renaissance followed a period in which Ruscio said the fraternities had become a little too much like "Animal House" for comfort.

"I think they were falling victim to the stereotypes," he said.

At the same time, the university tried to get a handle on rowdy behavior -- and protect its investment -- with a new, tough set of rules called "Standards for Fraternities." The rules require fraternity houses to have adult live-in resident managers or house mothers. The school also cracked down on alcohol abuse at fraternity parties. Keg parties were no long permitted, and students can serve alcohol at fraternity events only after undergoing special training.

"It was a very broad effort to reinforce the best ideals of those organizations," Ruscio said of the Fraternity Renaissance program. "Irresponsible drinking is not part of those ideals. They espouse certain values. If they live up to those values, they're consistent with the university mission."

Sigma Nu's Beacham said the fraternity "was a major supporter of the Renaissance program" at W&L.

Living in the 14 fraternity houses remains popular, but not everyone could live in one even if they wanted to -- they aren't big enough.

Students are required to spend two years in dormitories and/or fraternity and sorority houses, and then typically look for a house to rent off campus, though some on-campus housing is available for juniors and seniors.

In recent years, they have often left town altogether. The percentage of students living in on-campus versus off-campus housing is about 50-50, said Dawn Watkins, dean of students at Washington and Lee.

W&L has also built five stately new sorority buildings to accommodate women, who began attending the formerly all-male school in the 1980s. A sixth sorority house is scheduled to open in 2011.

Drinking is not permitted on sorority property, but sororities can hold events off property where alcohol is served to those of age by a third-party vendor, said Katie Dunphy, president of W&L's Panhellenic Council. The council "serves as a united voice of sorority women" at W&L, according to its Web site, wlupanhel.com.

W&L's renewed emphasis on Greek life came at a time when fraternities were coming under fire elsewhere for their perceived connection with alcohol abuse. A blizzard of lawsuits, many of them connected to alcohol-related hazing incidents, has forced national fraternities to re-examine their policies.

Beacham said there was a "period of introspection" which, combined with lawsuits, have led to changes in alcohol policy.

Sigma Nu now prohibits its chapters from providing alcohol from a central source at fraternity events, unless that source is a third-party vender, he said. Partygoers of legal age may also bring their own alcohol, but only enough for their own consumption. Most national fraternities have adopted similar policies, Beacham said.

Wiese, of Kappa Alpha, said the fraternity "beer bashes" of popular legend simply don't exist anymore.

Others say the party just moved out of town.

Country living

The trend toward student rental housing in Rockbridge County is actually several decades old, some longtime residents say.

It includes houses as far as eight miles from town -- though in the past decade, clusters of new student rental houses have appeared just across the Maury River from Lexington.

A line of new-looking two-story houses along the river, known to the students as the "pole houses," because they are built up on pylons, offer balconies, six bedrooms and a large den and open kitchen on the first floors.

On a Saturday morning last month, there were beer cans on some balcony railings, presumably left over from the previous night's partying. More students also live in clusters of new-looking houses in the nearby hills, on what could be suburban streets of two-story homes, except for the numerous SUVs with out-of-state plates and, sometimes, plastic drink cups scattered around the yards. Students also live in farmhouses and other rustic dwellings scattered throughout Rockbridge County.

Students say they often rent houses with co-fraternity or sorority members, with the older members passing the leases along to younger members when they leave, they said. Monthly rents can range from $1,500 to $3,000 or more, split four to six ways.

Fraternity leaders and university officials agreed that they can't ignore the issue of student drinking just because the students have moved off campus.

"It is an issue," Wiese said when asked about the county houses. "And it speaks to this issue as a whole. We need parents to help us with that. Our policies can only go so far. We're not deputized members of the constabulary here. We can't do it alone."

"It's important for universities to recognize our boundaries do not stop at the property line," Watkins said.

Still, said Watkins, echoing Wiese: "I'm not the police. We don't have jurisdiction off campus."

There is student rental housing in Lexington as well, though a city ordinance prohibiting more than three unrelated people in a single dwelling in most cases may be pushing students toward the county, some said.

Several students also spoke of friction with the Lexington police, and said relations with the Rockbridge County Sheriff's Office are better.

Rockbridge County Sheriff Robert Day did not return phone calls. Lexington Police Chief Steve Crowder said of 35 charges of drunkenness in public this year through Aug. 31, only five were students.

"I think that speaks for itself, that we're not picking on W&L kids," he said.

Crowder also said police give very few citations for underage drinking. "We simply don't have time for that. We're busy with other stuff."

Several students conceded the obstacles to underage drinking in the county houses are few.

"It's definitely easier for people who are underage to go to parties out in the county," said Cristin Quinn. "I guess there are really no authority figures out there."

Some students said the availability of alcohol at house parties is partly a result of the university's tradition of inclusiveness, in which everyone is welcome and saying "hello" is considered a sign of recognition and respect.

That same openness extends to parties, said McClintock, the interfraternity president. "It's a hard thing to go around at a party and say, 'How old are you?' 'How old are you?' You don't want to ask someone to leave."

"Not everybody knows how old everybody else is," said Smyth, the student. "How are you supposed to know?"

Students also complained of having to go through red tape, including buying wristbands and providing security guards, in order to have a party at a fraternity house in town.

Security is sometimes hired for parties in the county, too, said students, to help keep things under control and keep students from driving home drunk.

Even some of the students, however, see the shift to the county as a troubling trend:

"We have these gorgeous frat houses. The basements are made for parties. They're pretty much used about twice a year," said Collin Peck, a 22-year-old student from New Jersey who lives in one of the "pole houses" along the Maury River.

"Everybody goes to the country."

Traveller

The university has worked hard both to discourage alcohol abuse and keep students safe, administrators said.

Students are required to complete an online alcohol education program before coming to school.

And the university has a "safe haven" policy for students who have been drinking, no matter what their age, to encourage them to seek help without fear of repercussions, Watkins said. The policy extends to the university's student health center, which sometimes treats students who have been drinking to excess.

Then there's Traveller -- the free transportation system that ferries students to and fro on party nights.

Named for the horse of one-time W&L President Robert E. Lee, Traveller routinely stops at the campus, at fraternities and at popular nearby party locations in the county. It can also be summoned to specific locations, Watkins said.

"We rely on it a lot," said Laura Cavanaugh, who lives in one of the houses along the Maury River. "I think it started because there were some traffic deaths."

Four W&L students died in alcohol-related automobile accidents between 1989 and 2000, and a fifth student fell to his death from a dormitory window, according to university figures.

None has died since.

"All of the students love it," said Dunphy of Traveller. "It can be pretty fun." She said the riders sometimes sing.

But even the best of plans can go awry. A Traveller bus itself was involved in an accident in the early morning hours of Oct. 3, in which 19-year-old Elizabeth Blackwood of Annapolis, Md., walked into the side of the slowly moving vehicle, according to Virginia State Police. An eyewitness quoted in the student newspaper, the Ring-tum Phi, said Blackwood was in a crowd of students trying to board Traveller before it reached a scheduled stop, and fell under the rear of the 25-seat bus. She was taken to Roanoke Memorial Hospital and later released. Students said she is recovering at home. The driver of the bus was not charged.

It was the first accident involving a Traveller bus in the program's five-year history, said a university release, which also noted W&L is reviewing its policies in the wake of the incident.

"We continually review Traveller as a program," said Watkins, who declined to comment on the accident or the extent of the student's injuries.

Asked last week if Traveller was still in operation, Watkins said "Yes."

'How much, and when'

Were the drinking age lowered, said W&L President Ruscio, "I think it would raise the probability of us being able to spot problematic drinking. Because it wouldn't be hidden."

Ruscio also said students and faculty would be able to have a drink together on occasion, and students could see how adults handle alcohol.

Currently, he said, "the opportunity for students to interact with those role models in that setting are pretty rare."

And what do the students think about lowering the drinking age?

"I think more people would maybe move back onto campus," Quinn said. Others said the number of parties at fraternity houses would increase.

"I think people between 18 and 21 would probably binge a little bit," Smyth said. "In the long run, it would be better. I think within, like, a year, over time, it would just become normal."

Dunphy is "neutral" on the drinking age debate.

But she also said: "College is about growing up. Part of that is learning how much, and when."