Going dry?

[Jen]

.

[33girl]

If a fraternity went dry "cold turkey" it would most likely be a disciplinary sanction for one chapter.

The national fraternities that are going "dry" have taken 2-3 years to phase it in. The ones I can think of off the top of my head are Sigma Nu, Delta Sigma Phi, Phi Gamma Delta and Phi Delta Theta. I believe all of them have a rundown of their policies on their web sites.

[James]

Most fraternities are organized Nationally around a Supreme board as well as a professional staff.

Major policy decisions etc. are usually made at Bi-Annual district Conclaves where the undergraduate delegates have primary voting rights and vote on various decisions. You could say that Undergrads decide all the policy changes in the National Fraternity.

This is not totally true. Usually information is not well disseminated and the chapter delegate may be confronting the issue for the first time on the floor of the general meeting right before the vote. So he may not be fully prepared to debate or understand all the ramifications of a topic matter.

In this case many of the delegates are led by the sponsoring alumni or just vote yes to vote yes.

I have seen this take place in chapter over By-law amendments where people voted for something that actually prevented them from being eligible for something . . . and then they complained later! They didn't apply the change to themselves.

The reason why its generally a "phased in" approach to Dry Housing is for two reasons.

1. Logistical: To give people time to prepare.

2. The important reason: to create a Grandfather effect. Like when the drinking age was changed from 18 to 21. If you were 18 by a certain date you got to keep the legal ability to drink.

Even the most brain dead person will not normally directly vote to surrender something they want to do, however they will surrender the rights of others so long as it doesn't affect them too much.

In practice DRy Housing has created other more serious problems.

Where it has cut down on Sororities coming over, making a mess, and then leaving without helping clean up (what men won't do for women)

IT has created off campus non-official houses that parties take place in and increases the risk of people driving while intoxicated.

So I imagine in your story that the chapter would be less than pleased about going dry, less than pleased if one of them were moronic enough to have voted for it in conclave, and make arrangements to have an off campus base to continue partying in.

Good story by the way (Brookline)



[This message has been edited by James (edited February 02, 2001).]

[James]

Its actually done just like the change in age for the drinking laws were.

If the National picked a 2003 dry date then it would be business as usual until that date and the chapter would recieve letters about it.

So when it was first passed the chapter would receive an official letter stating the new policy and the date it takes effect.

There would not be a gradual change in policy. The change would be absolute but take a few years to take effect to get people used to the inevitability of the idea.

Hope this helps . . .

By the way, where did you get the pictures for the various characters?