Kappa Sig ushers in the BYOB-party era

Kappa Sigma fraternity appealed to partygoers' musical tastes and their pinched pocketbooks last Friday night as the chapter threw the Universitys first open "bring your own bottle" fraternity party. Kappa Sig used the band Chaos Theory and free entry as incentives to attract students to the first party registered with the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs since the Interfraternity Council's BYOB alcohol policy went into effect last Thursday. The party was complete with a policy-mandated professional bouncer, a storage area -- located near the dance floor -- for alcohol, and wristbands to identify partygoers who had shown identification. While both fraternity members and other students who attended said the party was a success, two students said they saw underage friends drinking alcohol. Also, one legal-age drinker, College senior Robert Williams, said that he entered the party with alcohol without being checked for identification. And Wharton senior Jennifer Dietrich, who is 21 years old, said that she drank without wearing a wrist-tag and saw other friends drinking without the tags. "People who were underage were able to get alcohol from friends who were in the party who were legal," Dietrich said. "There's nothing anyone can do about underage people getting alcohol from their friends." Kappa Sig President Peter Vandergoes said that although the party was a success both logistically and socially, the size of the party made monitoring it a difficult task. "It's impossible to say that at no point in time no one underage was drinking," said Vandergoes, a College and Wharton senior. "We have monitors who look for underage drinkers." Fraternity members and a professional bouncer monitored the entrance to the party according to the regulations mandated by the IFC. "No one got through with alcohol that they showed us [without being checked for identification], but it's not our job to frisk people," Vandergoes said. Under the new alcohol policy, the IFC does not monitor parties until violations of the policy are reported and prosecuted by the Greek Peer Judicial Board. Kappa Sig's party was one of two registered parties this weekend. Phi Kappa Sigma also held a party last weekend, but it was closed to the public. Ten students who attended the party said yesterday that they enjoyed themselves at Kappa Sig. Several of them described the scene as calmer, less crowded and less animated than parties held under the old policy. "I thought it was fun, but I thought that it lacked certain free sociability that other parties had," said College sophomore Hallie Levin. "It was not a loose crowd." Levin said that the new BYOB policy changed the party atmosphere because it limited the amount of alcohol people could drink. "I think it was the idea that people weren't drinking more than the reality of people weren't drinking," Levin said. Amy Mertz, who, like Levin, is underage and did not bring alcohol to the party, said that the Kappa Sig house was as crowded as previous fraternity parties she had attended, but that the atmosphere was calmer. "The difference was that people who didn't have 21 ID were getting wasted before [coming to the party] and then showing up," said Mertz, a College sophomore. And while College sophomore Levin said that she'll continue to go to fraternity parties, she said she will make other plans if she wants more than music. "I'll still definately go to frat parties," Levin said.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.