NSO sees no increase in party shutdowns

While fraternity party fliers advertise “Freshmen Disorientation,” Penn Public Safety continues to enforce “party responsibility,” according to the Vice President of Public Safety Maureen Rush.

Sixteen parties were shut down this year during New Student Orientation, including 11 off campus and five on campus.

“My guess is that it’s a concern about the flash mobs,” Director of the Office of Student Affairs and Fraternity Sorority Life Scott Reikofski said, in reference to the violent teen mobs that occurred in Philadelphia this summer. “New student orientation is also historically a time for heavy drinking.”

Rush, however, said that Penn Police’s approach towards shutting down unregistered parties during NSO has not changed.

Last year, the same number of on-campus parties were shut down, according to Rush, who was unable to disclose the number of off-campus parties that required similar attention.

“There’s a lot of parties,” Rush said. “But generally the parties that were shut down were where there were loud music calls from neighbors.”

Some of the parties that the Penn Police shut down were organized by fraternities, Rush said, who did not disclose their identity. The police also identified parties hosted by unofficial fraternity houses.

Delta Psi, or St. A’s, was the only fraternity to register an on-campus party during NSO this year, Reikofski said. However, the Interfraternity Council did not issue any fines.

Rush said the Penn Police has been working shutting down unregistered parties over the past few years. “You can have a party, but you’re going to have party responsibility,” she said. “We cannot continue to have people disrupting the quality of life for the rest of the neighborhood.”

While Public Safety continued to operate on a normal basis, returning students attending NSO parties noticed a change in police behavior compared with last year.

College sophomore Nicole Grabowski, who attended NSO parties last year as well as this year, said the police were more strict this time.

“While walking to a party earlier in the night, a cop car followed us down the street and waited to see where we went in,” she added. “But they did not talk to us.”

“I don’t think there were necessarily more police officers this year,” Engineering sophomore Sabrina Andrews said. “But the police did seem more active.”

However, freshmen attending NSO parties did not believe the police activities ruined their week.

College freshman Noah Frick attended two off-campus parties that were shut down by the police. “They just entered and told everyone to leave,” Frick said. “They were really nice and didn’t ruin the night at all.”

“While I was not at a party when it was shut down,” Grabowski added, “there was a barbeque in Sigma [Phi] Epsilon, and they set off the fire alarm. One of the firemen who responded took a celeb shot for somebody’s pong game.”

Rush confirmed that no Penn students were arrested during NSO events.

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