Prosperity Turns to Challenges
The early 1990's continued well for the chapter, but the chapter houses began deteriorating and the Oxford Fire Marshall condemned them in March 1994. Five months later, the houses were razed with plans to build a single larger house on the property. Detailed plans and fundraising were drawn and financing was in place to rebuild, until those plans faced unexpected challenges and construction was unable to begin.
While the 1980's saw a national recovery in Greek Life, a major law was passed that still has a significant impact on university life and campus culture: The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984. This required all states to enforce a minimum legal drinking age of 21 or risk losing 10% of all federal highway construction funds. For Ohio, the legal drinking age after Prohibition in 1933 was 16 and shortly after raised to 18 in 1935. Even through the 1970's, the legal drinking age remained 18 until the Drinking Age Act raised it to 19 in 1984. In 1987, the 21 age was enforced to be consistent with the Act.
As a result, fraternities became centers of social life on campuses where alcohol is illegal for more than 1/2 of the student body. The 1990's was especially rough for fraternities as lawsuits and legal troubles surrounding alcohol and hazing became prevalent. Universities were also affected and felt increasing pressures to provide alcohol education and awareness programs and change policies related to alcohol on and around campuses.
In 1992, Sigma Phi Epsilon established the Balanced Man Program (BMP) as an alternative member development program to pledging that focused on equal rights and responsibility as members and continuous member development. At the Grand Chapter Conclave in 1993, undergraduates voted to allow this new member development in local chapters. While other fraternities saw flat or declining memberships and greater risk management issues, SigEp remained the largest and fastest growing fraternity attributed to the BMP and foresight of its leaders.
Since then, many other fraternities have followed in the footsteps of SigEp's Balanced Man Program, including Beta Theta Pi's "Men of Principle," Sigma Alpha Epsilon's "True Gentleman" (which as of 2014 has completely eliminated pledging from all chapters nationwide), Kappa Alpha Order's "Crusade," Pi Kappa Alpha's "True Pike," Lambda Chi Alpha's "True Brother Initiative," and Tau Kappa Epsilon's "The Blueprint".
For OH Eta, membership began declining as a result of the two fraternity houses no longer existing and a plan to build a new house unexpectedly losing steam. Dedicated alumni and chapter brothers worked diligently to move plans forward with the house and transitioning the chapter to BMP, but unfortunately the timing and circumstance was not cooperative. SigEp granted alumni status to the remaining brothers in 2001, except for one - Jerome Kunkel '04, who had been a SigEp at Morehead State and had recently enrolled at Miami after serving our country in the U.S. Marine Corps. Jerome would carry into the colony chapter while other brothers were recruited and began again in November as a Sigma Epsilon Colony (SEC).