Finding Chums at UCI? It’s All Greek

A pair of cute, blond students, dressed in tight pants and spike heels, trudged with admirable coordination up the long and winding road.

“Do you think Derick will be here?” asked one of the young women, awash in festive giddiness.

“Of course Derick will be here--it’s his fraternity’s party,” answered the other. “Quit walking so fast!”

Then the woman who had exhibited an interest in this Derick fellow noticed an older intruder plodding along behind. “Hi! You can join us,” she offered, taking pity on the lone stranger for her apparent unpopularity.

Remembering her own cliquishness of her college days, the older intruder found the gesture rather sweet.

“Are you in a sorority?” the women was quizzed.

The older intruder has not been of sorority age since the last Democratic presidency. No, the older intruder answered, she was merely on a mission to observe the mating habits of college students and to ask questions such as: “Are these fraternity parties a good place to meet guys?”

“That’s why we’re here,” the women giggled, then refused to volunteer their names.

“Here” was one of the biggest UC Irvine fraternity-sorority nights of the fall semester: “Sewer Nite,” presented Saturday by Phi Delta Theta at Lion Country Safari’s amphitheater.

More than 500 students of all affiliations, including independent, mingled over “slime” punch--a green concoction of vodka and Kool-Aid served from plastic garbage pails. For the record, it tasted as bad as it sounds.

Roaming the lively fete with note pad in had, the older intruder suddenly felt like the class nerd. But the awkwardness soon passed because the students seemed willing to welcome anyone into their circle of conversation.

Three women--all 20, all juniors, all Tri Delts--discussed the benefits of sorority sisterhood.

“UC Irvine is a commuter school, so it’s hard to meet people on campus if you’re not involved in a club,” said Julie Smuckler, who drives in from Dana Point. “On campus, you go sit in a big lecture hall, you take notes, and then you go home, without ever talking to another person.”

“We have exchange parties, where one sorority puts on a party with one fraternity,” said Carrie Von Haas. “That’s the best way to meet guys. Everyone gets to know each other, so you can find out who has a girlfriend and who doesn’t. In a classroom situation, you might see somebody you’d like to meet, but you don’t know if he already has a girlfriend.”

Von Haas mentioned that she has a boyfriend--a Kappa Sigma--inspiring a powwow about the pros and cons of significant others while in college.

“I’ve never had a steady boyfriend, and I think it’s fun not to,” Smuckler said. “I’d rather date around.”

“Not me,” said Tiffany Allevato. “I had a boyfriend for 6 months (long-term, by a 20-year-old’s standards), and I liked that better.”

Nearby, two Phi Delts schmoozed over plastic cups of beer. “I’m Bill Jackson and he’s Joe Jackson, but we’re not related--isn’t that weird?” said Bill, 21.

Joe boldly expressed what he sees as a bonus to fraternity membership: “Girls like you better. It sounds fascist, but it’s true.

“And it’s even easier to meet girls at a party when your fraternity is giving the party,” he said. “It’s like, this is your party, and everybody is here because of you .”

“It’s hard for me to pick up girls on campus,” Bill said. “I feel much more comfortable meeting them at parties. It’s easier to establish the initial conversation after a couple of beers.”

“Alcohol is the social lubricant,” Joe concurred. “It lowers your inhibitions. You’re more likely to meet someone at a party whom you might just walk by on campus.”

For Sigma Alpha Epsilon member Clint Butterworth, 20, male bonding is the most important feature that his fraternity provides: “Being in a fraternity is a nice way to meet girls too, but your fraternity brothers will be your friends for life.”

Standing in line for the restroom, one student confessed: “To tell you the truth, I think sororities are kind of stupid. I wouldn’t be in one if I didn’t go to a school where it’s so hard to meet people on campus.”

“That’s not the way I feel,” said Vanessa Taylor, 20, a Kappa Alpha Theta who waited until her junior year to pledge.

“I had a boyfriend my first 2 years of college. He’d already graduated, so I wasn’t at all involved in campus activities. I’m finally experiencing what I should have been experiencing for the past 2 years. I enjoy college a lot more now that I’m in a sorority.”

Phi Delt Dave Triepke, 21, said he is majoring in social ecology because “I like to study people”--at which moment a woman wearing snug white slacks happened by--”and there’s the kind of people I like to study.”

Triepke’s buddy, Steve Walters, 20, pointed out that engineering majors such as himself need extra avenues for meeting women. “My classes are 90% guys,” he complained.

Then there were the non-Greeks, like Paul Rossi, whose long blond hair set him apart from the generally clean-cut crowd.

“Long?” he argued. “I just got it cut. I feel like a total skinhead.”

The 22-year-old Laguna Hills resident explained his presence thusly: “I heard about this party and dropped my surfboard and came running. I’m here to scope out chicks.”

Rick Smirl, Phi Delt president, emphasized that proceeds from the party would benefit research projects for Lou Gehrig’s disease. “Fraternities are criticized a lot,” he said, “but often we don’t get credit for the good things we do.”

One recurrent criticism of U.S. fraternities has been alcohol overindulgence--an eternal college-age thrill for Greeks and independents alike.

A young woman, sick to her stomach, shoved to the head of the restroom line. A carful of yelping revelers peeled through the parking lot. The older intruder hoped all those cute kids would make it home safely.

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