St. Patrick’s Day partying at fraternities on campus is something of a campus tradition, and according to Interfraternity Council officials, the activities are sanctioned by the IFC.
Michael Miniaci, IFC’s vice president of social responsibility wrote in an e-mail interview that events that take place during the day can’t be regulated by the IFC’s Social Responsibility Committee. But if fraternities do have daytime parties, they’re expected to follow the rules laid out in the IFC’s Social Environment Management Policy — like having sober monitors and not using glass bottles.
Fraternities are allowed to have parties tonight as well as long as they’re registered with the IFC, but as of IFC’s deadline Monday night, no fraternities had registered parties, according to Miniaci.
According to the IFC’s Social Environment Management Policy, which states the rules fraternities are supposed to follow when hosting social functions, IFC fraternities are allowed to hold events Tuesday through Saturday as long as they are of a certain size. Events can only be registered between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., and the size of events allowed during those days is divided into different tiers that range from 50 guests to 200 guests.
If a fraternity has an event that isn’t registered prior to taking place, it is subject to social probation, the maximum sanction of which is six weeks of social probation, Miniaci wrote in the e-mail interview.
Miniaci wrote that IFC’s Social Responsibility Committee will be “on rounds” tonight to look for the possibility of unregistered events. He added that he spoke with Sigma Pi’s president and was informed that the fraternity will not be hosting the event at night, though according to a Facebook event, the fraternity has an event planned during the day today.
“If they are found by SRC to be having an event when SRC is on rounds, they will likely be sanctioned for six weeks of social probation,” Miniaci wrote.
Sigma Pi’s party will end by 10 p.m., and thus didn’t register the event with IFC, Sigma Pi president Glen Mitas wrote in an e-mail interview last night. The Facebook event previously stated that the party would last until Thursday morning at 3 a.m., but according to Mitas, that was “nothing more than a mere typo.”
“Our event tomorrow is a social gathering that will occur only during the daytime,” Mitas wrote. “…We, Sigma Pi Fraternity, are in full compliance with the IFC’s social responsibility policies.”
This past Saturday, also known as “St. Practice Day,” three IFC fraternities registered events during the evening, according to Miniaci. Other fraternities that hosted events during the day weren’t regulated by the SRC since the committee can’t “logistically regulate events during the day,” he wrote.