Quote:
Originally posted by GeekyPenguin
I've thought a lot about alcohol free housing, and I hate it... I don't see how much trouble that could possibly cause. Girls do come home drunk - wouldn't we rather have them be able to drink at home than pass out on XYZ's front lawn? Not everyone in college drinks - I don't, but I understand that my sisters want to.
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GeekyPenguin,
I respect your thoughts completely-- that a woman aged 21+ should be allowed to drink within her own home, with the intention that it is better to "get silly" within one's own four walls than at a location or function where alcohol is served. That does make sense. We don't want our sisters acting out of control in public. So if they did it at home, it would be out of the public eye.
However, a sorority house is not a typical residence. It is owned by the sorority and it is on university property. The sorority takes part in a social insurance policy. If a member is endangered within a sorority function or on sorority grounds because sorority policies were not followed, the sorority can lose its insurance coverage, and every member of the sorority can be held liable, including family members (who are going to have a lot more money than their college student child). In some instances, the future wages of the sorority members can be garnished in order to pay off the lawsuit settlement. I know fraternities are allowed to have alcohol in their houses, but their insurance costs are much, much greater than the sororities, and many fraternities are beginning to go "dry" because of these huge costs.
This may not seem fair to some but if a person were to become incapacitated at another place, say a friend's home, her family might retaliate by suing the renter, the home owner and the others at the party in order to make good on their child's medical expenses, etc. There have been many cases like this, some having nothing to do with Greek life-- people are more likely to go after those with the most money in a case of liabilty, and an organization offers a greater prospect of a payoff than an individual. I was in a car accident in college--- hit by a drunk driver who was killed. He had no insurance and no money. My family had to sue both our own insurance AND the insurance of the driver of the car I was in (one of my closest friends!) just to pay my medical bills! We're still great friends with the girls who were in our car, but isn't that absurd? Still, when you're injured, someone has to be liable. The bills don't just go away.
Please consider that within each sorority, your chapter is a member of a greater group-- the national org. And every chapter within the org has to be held accountable to follow the sorority policies so we prevent liability issues and the ultimate folding of the national group.
If women want to drink in their home, they have the option of not living in the sorority house. If the chapter makes it a requirement to live-in, you have the right to amend the bylaws. Or, pay the live-in dues and live somewhere else. There are a good number of sorority women who do this. Or, don't have a chapter house.
The insurance policies will not change. Chi-O at Wake Forest absorbed Fideles local sorority for the mere reason that Fideles (and the other locals) could not afford to take on their own insurance policies, and in order to maintain the existence as social organizations needed to be part of a national social group.
I'm sorry this post is so long, and I am not attacking your thoughts or ideas. I am only explaining why women may not have alcohol in the house. I hope you will not feel like I have attacked your viewpoint. 21+ people are of age to drink, but there are some places where they many not, and there are enough places to consume alcohol in other places to where they should not have to feel as though their rights are not being considered.
I also want to point out that not only sororities and fraternities are covered by policies and rules and "umbrella"-type policies. It happens in the "real world," too. I used to work for a theme park owned by a larger company. We ran a 1/4'ly sweepstakes through our park under the sweepstakes licensing of our parent company. Every "I" had to be dotted and every "T" crossed on the legal disclaimers and methods by which we ran this sweepstakes, or we would put our parent company in jeopardy and lose the sweepstakes license for the ENTIRE company. Our parent company does a lot of promotions and sweeps; can you imagine if the subsidiary I worked for had been just a little careless and lost the right to run the sweeps for the entire company? By the way, that parent company was (and still is) Anheuser-Busch. Can you imagine all the Bud promotions in your area alone? Imagine not being able to do those because a regional theme park promotion wasn't properly executed? Think about all the money Bud would lose, the attention they would lose and the PR.
If we become part of a group, we need to respect the rules of that group. They are the rules for a reason.