In looking at trends re alcoholic drink I start with my campus newspaper. The Miami Student, 25 March, has a front page article reporting that two international fraternities announced a new alcohol policy for all chapters on 17 March. "The plan is to be alcohol-free by the year 2000." The fraternities are Phi Delta Theta and Sigma Nu. Phil Delta Theta, headquartered in Oxford, Ohio, offers financial incentitves for chapters which ban alcohol sooner. The hope is that a quarter of chapters will do so each year prior to 2000. All new chapters must start with an alcohol ban. Chapters not banning alcohol by the year 2000 will lose their charters. Eleven chapters banned alcohol in 1995. The president of the international fratnerity Robert Deloian was quoted as saying "we are losing our purpose" as a result of the identification with drinking. Apparently liability is another less altruistic motive for the change in policy. According to the article an insurance organizaqtion ranked fraternities and sorities as sixth in the top thirty liability risks. By the way, the president of Miami's Alpha chapter was unenthusiastic about the new policy. "The chapter is opposed to it because it says that [even] if you're 21 you can't drink in your home." *** David M. Fahey History Department Miami University Oxford, OH 45056-1618, USA tel. 513-529-5134 FAX 513-529-3224 e-mail: <[log in to unmask]>