Several campus fraternities tested a policy this weekend forbidding them from serving alcohol at house parties, instead requiring partygoers to bring their own.
The policy was implemented by the Interfraternity Council, the University’s largest Greek council, in an effort to promote safety at Greek social events. But fraternity members and partygoers questioned whether the policy will stick.
LSA sophomore Max Barack, president of the University’s chapter of Alpha Delta Phi, which enforced the new bring-your-own-alcohol policy this weekend, seemed torn when asked how effective he felt it was.
“I think when you’re trying to change any kind of a campus culture, there’s a lot of resistance to it,” Barack said. “We’ll see what direction this goes in.”
Many students who found their way to Alpha Delta Phi or to Chi Psi, the other fraternity that hosted an IFC-sponsored party this weekend, responded just like Barack did. It may still be too soon to tell whether the policy, designed to make fraternity-sponsored parties safer, will have an effect.
LSA junior Ryan Spotts, vice president of public relations for the IFC and a member of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity, attended the party hosted by Alpha Delta Phi on Saturday to see how the system was implemented. He said he was happy to see people attend the party and bring their own alcohol. He said the check process where students turn in alcohol to house members went smoothly.
But Spotts said IFC officials will reconsider the policy if it turns off too many partygoers.
“Just like any community, our community is rooted in its own customs and traditions, and this is changing a lot of those,” Spotts said about the policy. “If this comes down to destroying the face of the Greek community and the traditions we have, I don’t think we’ll go that far with it.”
Adhering to the new policy, the house required guests to hand over their bottles in a fashion similar to a coat check at a nightclub. Several brothers, called “sober monitors,” were required to abstain from drinking throughout the night to run the system, meet partygoers at the door and take inventory of their alcohol. They numbered the bottle and the guests’ hands. All alcohol was kept in the same location and monitored.
When a guest wanted a drink, he had to ask the sober monitor. If a monitor thought the person had become too intoxicated, he could limit a guest’s consumption.
Spotts said a girl attending the Chi Psi party on Friday had to be taken to the hospital because she had consumed too much alcohol. Spotts said the situation was unfortunate but praised Chi Psi brothers for ensuring that the girl was taken to the hospital.
Barack said he didn’t think the system was “horrendous,” but added that he thought it needed some work. He said the system put too much pressure on the sober monitors to be bartenders and to ensure the safety of party guests at the same time.
LSA senior Tyler Meaton, a sober monitor at Alpha Delta Phi’s party, said he didn’t have much trouble doing his job Saturday night but doubts the policy will stick.
LSA sophomore Ashley Waters said she disliked the new policy, criticizing it for preventing fraternities from buying alcohol for guests.
“I don’t think its effective,” she said. “They used money that they would have spent on beer for a DJ and a dance floor. People would just rather have free beer.”