WATERVILLE, Maine -- In a scene reminiscent of the film 'Animal House,' angry Colby College students burned matresses and a piano in bonfires to protest a ban on fraternities and sororities due to rowdyism and poor grades.
Blazes were set Sunday night and early today and some 100 rowdy fraternity members staged a snowball fight, sang fraternity songs and chanted slogans against a decision to ban the Greek system as of September.
Waterville firefighters rushed to three fires -- two bonfires in front of Fraternity Row and a dumpster fire at the liberal arts college of 1,650 students. No injuries or arrests were reported.
'It was not vicious or terribly uncivilized so I assume an investigation will be held to see if any action ... is warranted,' said college spokesman Peter Kingsley. 'This was essentially a chance to let out some steam.'
In the film 'National Lampoon's Animal House,' a fraternity kicked off the campus of a small liberal arts college goes on a rampage in vengeance.
The Colby protests followed school President William Cotter's comment that the board of trustees decision to ban the Green societies was 'one of the most significant Colby has taken in its 171-year history.'
The trustees' unanimous vote Saturday made Colby the first New England college to ban the socities since Williams College of Williamstown, Mass., in 1968.
The board adopted the recommendations of a commission appointed eight months ago to study the social life at the coeducational school.
'It's disappointing,' said Gregory Shefrin, a junior and vice-president of the Inter-Fraternity Council. 'They didn't seem interested in helping an ailing system, they just killed it and disregarded student opinion.'
About 20 percent of the study body belongs to fraternities and sororities but the commission said the socities 'dominated' the school's social life to the exclusion of other students.
Also, school administrators say grades in some fraternity and sorority houses consistently fall below the campus average and that fraternities show a 'chronic failure' to meet behavioral guidelines.
One fraternity was expelled last year for violating the campus code and the charter of the oldest one on campus was suspended.
To replace the 139-year-old fraternity system, the commission recommended a 'Residential Commons' system, with four self-governing residential units, each centered around a common dining hall.
A vote last November showed 75 percent of the students favored the societies. Faculty members, polled in October, overwhelmingly favored abolition.
