Creating the right party environment

It's been a rough semester for frat boys at Penn. The Castle and Kappa Sig have to go dry next year. And fewer registered parties mean that the campus social life is continuing its shift off-campus toward downtown and Beige Block. Essentially, Penn is caught in a Catch-22: administrators make rules to ensure the safety and security of their students, and violators of those rules must be punished. But by punishing fraternities that violate the rules, Penn decreases on-campus social options, driving parties to off-campus houses where safety precautions do not exist. The long, slow death of the frat-centric social scene started several years ago with the banning of door fees from on-campus parties. As a result, fraternities could no longer afford to throw multiple parties per semester -- a situation that worsened when kegs were banned from fraternity houses. The incredible expense associated with throwing registered parties resulted in decreasing the party frequency from 2-3 per weekend night to 2-3 per month. Without an on-campus social center to anchor the Greek scene, it began to drift away -- toward downtown parties that shift the cost of alcohol onto the drinker, and house parties that result in immeasurable consumption. Additionally, while the number of parties in on-campus fraternity houses has decreased, the amount of beer and liquor consumed hasn't declined. Probation or dry national affiliations hardly hinder the amount of booze flowing into frats. And the strong affinity between frat boys and alcohol only complicates matters. Without alcohol, the fraternity system on this campus would significantly lose its strength -- although brotherhood and friendship are major reasons men join houses on this campus, many of those bonds are formed at parties and over games of beer pong. But with alcohol, fraternities get in trouble and lose the ability to contribute to social life on campus. The alcohol used to lure prospective members results in any number of incidents; the alcohol kept in houses results in incidents, such as those at the Castle and Kappa Sigma this semester. So administrators face a huge dilemma, one that has grown in size over the past several years. The rules instituted are in place to help decrease risk and ensure that incidents, such as Michael Tobin's death at FIJI two years ago,never happen again. And those rules only can be successful so long as they are enforced and violators are punished. But if punishing fraternities and forcing them to go dry means relocating the drinking to off-campus locations -- where no regulations are in place -- don't students remain at risk? Unfortunately there are no easy solutions to this question. Part of the problem is that the University fights very hard against undergraduate alcohol consumption -- and as a result, students don't have all the opportunities necessary to learn how to drink responsibly. For their part, Stephanie Ives and the Vice Provost for University Life's office have worked hard to promote moderation and responsibility. But without safe outlets to engage in social drinking, students will continue to binge when the chance becomes available. Secondly, the University is so intent on providing non-alcoholic outlets for students and discouraging drinking that they choose not to service the portion of the students that do want to engage in social consumption. And while the idea of Penn-sponsored drinking sounds somewhat counterproductive, it would only mean that it should be easier for fraternities to throw registered, on-campus parties. Since the Greek system no longer receives funds from the UA, it can no longer afford to provide the safe outlets that everyone wants to ensure. Alternatives to the current system should be explored -- such as those used at Cornell, where third parties collect door fees, and are responsible for serving the alcohol and checking identification. Regardless of what solutions are proposed, encouraging registered parties will only help guarantee the safety of Penn students. Finally, however, fraternities need to start working with the University to obey the rules more rigidly. Rush needs to be cleaned up -- after all, keeping freshmen inebriated for two weeks doesn't necessarily help them make better decisions about which house to join. If fraternities choose to break the rules and throw unregistered parties, they must take responsibility upon themselves to ensure that their guests don't drink themselves into the hospital. If the social devolution continues at its current pace, soon drinking on this campus will be completely relegated to the unregulated off-campus world beyond 40th Street. And that will surely result only in more trips to the emergency room, if nothing worse. It is up to the fraternities and the administration to create an environment where students learn how to drink responsibly and can do so openly.

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