The days of enormous fraternity parties where anyone can come and let loose may be over. The Interfraternity Council recently instituted new rules and regulations for Greek parties.

Effective Jan. 1, the changes to the Greek social policy will mean big differences in fraternity parties and events. Some of the changes include increased restrictions regarding alcohol and party size.

With the new changes, any event with more than 25 women or where alcohol is present must be registered with the IFC to ensure an increased level of safety at parties. Unregistered events can be unsafe because in the event of an emergency, no one has official responsibility.

Under the new rules, non-Greek guests must be on a guest list, and the number of non-Greek guests may not exceed four times the number of sober monitors.

Some students expressed concerns about how the new rules will affect Welcome Week and Rush activities. Before the changes were put in place, fraternities could host large parties in the fall, hoping to attract freshmen. With the new regulations, some students feel it may be more difficult for fraternities to introduce themselves to freshmen.

“If the (new) rules are in place (next year), many freshmen will not see as many frats, and there will be a smaller Greek freshman class,” said LSA freshman Jeremy Zaks, who is currently pledging Alpha Sigma Phi.

LSA freshman Alison Ladman, a member of the sorority Sigma Delta Tau, expressed a more serious concern.

“Soon enough, if they keep making laws this way, there will be no more Greek life,” she said.

According to IFC spokesman Jon Krasnov, the changes will actually help Rush numbers. Rush events, Krasnov said, will be better coordinated within the Greek community. Instead of large parties with many students not interested in joining and copious amounts of alcohol, Rush events will be more about unity and reaching out.

“There will be events prior to the formal recruitment week that will allow underclassmen to understand the Rush process and to meet as many brothers as possible,” Krasnov said. He described Rush as “a formal day of open houses followed by a week of formal recruitment. Houses will also host informal events that potential rushees will be welcome to attend.”

The new policies also call for an IFC representative to be present at the door of a fraternity house when the house hosts a registered party. Many students — Greek and non-Greek — said they like the idea of sober monitors but feel that having an IFC representative is extreme.

“It will be like having parents around at parties,” Ladman said. She added that she is not sure how effective sober monitors will be. “Drunk football players aren’t going to back down to a 135-pound freshman boy that has been assigned as a sober monitor,” she said. But Ladman said she still supports the idea.

As for the new rules regarding alcohol and event registration, students said they feel that fraternities’ hands will be tied and parties will not be as much fun. The regulations now require attendees to bring their own alcohol if they choose to drink.

“The BYOA rule is not a good rule. It forces people to drink more before they leave (their residences) in a less social atmosphere. That means that people will drink more in a shorter amount of time, which is dangerous. If a frat could serve a keg at a party, people would be drinking more socially and more slowly — a much less dangerous scenario,” Zaks said.

LSA freshman Bradley Mock, who is not a member of a fraternity, expressed sympathy for fraternities in general.

“I think the changes put too many restrictions on fraternities. … They’ve been like that for a long time, and I don’t see why there should be more restrictions placed on an established community in the University,” Mock said. He added that he always felt safe at Greek parties even before the new rules took effect.

Krasnov said he was not worried about negative feedback.

“People are skeptical about change. We feel that everyone is adapting to the new policy as well as we could have hoped. Greek members understand that it’s an essential change to establish a safer atmosphere and to decrease liability for fraternities.”

Students agree, regardless of their Greek affiliation, that it will be hard to judge what effect the changes will have on Greek life until the fall 2005 semester begins.

“We feel that this semester is a transitional period and we are more than satisfied with results thus far,” Krasnov said. Because there are fewer large Greek social events in the winter, many of the new restrictions have not yet been put to the test.