Tom Cutsforth's father was a Sigma Phi Epsilon man. So were his grandfather, two uncles and two great-uncles.

But up until about three years ago, Cutsforth and his father, also named Tom, were seriously rethinking the family legacy.

News reports about the SigEps at Oregon Alpha, the chapter at Oregon State University, hadn't been good. In September 2001, when Cutsforth was a sophomore at West Albany High School, the chapter was hit with 26 counts of providing alcohol to minors and thousands of dollars in fines - all from just one party.

"The house I joined isn't the house you'll probably be looking at," Cutsforth remembers his father saying.

That, however, was before "Balanced Man."

SigEp brothers credit the national program, now in 256 chapters, with raising grades, reducing problems related to alcohol, and prompting a new sense of respect for one another. The "Animal House" ways are no more, they insist, and that's the way they want it.

The Balanced Man program, according to OSU's official SigEp Web site, gets back to the ancient Greek ideal that a man needed to develop both a sound body and a sound mind.

To that end, the chapter concentrates on academic support for one another, holds weekly lessons in proper dining etiquette and has cracked down on drinking. Members work hard at maintaining a minimum B average (during fall term, the membership earned a 3.32 gpa). Last year, the fraternity completed more than 2,000 hours of documented community service.

Cutsforth is pictured ironing a shirt in a Feb. 20 Time magazine profile on the program. It prompted his mother to ask him for his autograph and gave his sister a good laugh. "So really all it got for me was family grief," he said, laughing, "but that's a different story."

Cutsforth and some of his fellow SigEps, all from Albany, said one of the biggest draws of Balanced Man is that the program eliminates the traditional "pledge" system. All members have equal standing in the house from the day they join.

"When I was a freshman, the only people doing the dishes and vacuuming were always freshmen," said Nic D'Agostini, a junior majoring in business marketing. Now, he said, everyone has upkeep duties. "That's one of the biggest things I saw."

Fellow junior Scott Cowgill said he didn't know what it meant to be a pledge when he first joined the fraternity, the year the membership voted to join Balanced Man. Now, looking at other Greek houses, he said he has a new perspective - especially when he sees freshmen on work detail at 6 a.m.

Cowgill and D'Agostini were freshmen when the upperclassmen made the switch to Balanced Man. Before that time, freshmen weren't allowed even to attend chapter meetings, let alone have a voice in them, D'Agostini said.

Cowgill remembers the juniors and seniors being fully on board with the coming change. Most of the sophomores weren't, he said, speculating that they had been hazed themselves and had been looking forward to finally being the ones in charge.

"It was a real difficult adjustment, especially for the sophomore class. They didn't really like to go along because they were kind of put through the wringer," Cowgill said. "There was a lot of dissension in the house."

There was a formal membership review, both recalled, and several people were asked to leave. Several more moved out with them. The 30-member sophomore class dropped to about six, Cowgill said. But those who remained were committed to making the new system work.

SigEp isn't alone. Sigma Alpha Epsilon has rolled out a program similar to Balanced Man, called "True Gentlemen," and Beta Theta Pi has "Men of Principle."

Some students really want a fraternity experience that focuses more on partying, Cowgill said, and that's all right. He stressed that SigEp doesn't mean to sound more-balanced-than-thou.

"I think every house offers their own kind of product, and ours just kind of focuses on personal development," he said.

To Cutsforth, a business major, the Balanced Man approach makes sense because it continues the kind of educational experience he'd come to expect. He had a 3.9 gpa in high school, played tennis and golf, and didn't believe it was fair that a group of students who just happened to be older than he was would have the right to treat him "like scum just scraped off your shoe."

"A lot of people nowadays come in almost strictly for the fact that they are going to be equals," he said.

It also makes sense to his father, and to others from the old-school Greek days, Cutsforth said. When Sigma Phi Epsilon was put on probation following that 2001 party, his father called the head of the alumni board to ask what was going on.

The board member told him the fraternity was going to be making some large-scale changes, Cutsforth recalled, and to check back soon.

"He loves where we're at right now," Cutsforth said.

By Jennifer Moody, Albany Democrat-Herald. She can be reached at jennifer.moody@lee.net. View her blog at www.democratherald.com