How open are your parties?

[Rudey]

Guest list and closed door?
Guest list for guys and open door for girls?
Open door for all students with payment at the door?
Open door to ANYBODY - including neighborhood people?

The only reason I bring this up because there is a school mentioned in another thread that brings neighborhood people to its parties.

The level of risk is already high at any party, do you really think it's wise to increase that risk by letting anyone in?

-Rudey

[GeekyPenguin]

We never had parties, but I saw a huge variance with houses at Platteville.

Some (the smart ones that haven't been caught) were invite only - not even a guest list. You had to have an invite signed by a brother in your hand to get in the door.

Others had a guest list for guys but would usually let in a few extra girls, especially if they said "Oh, I know Rudey." You'd come out and vouch, and they'd get to go in.

Others were pretty much a free-for-all - which could be a lot of fun but often had high school kids at them. I remember going to a completely open party my first weekend at college and thinking I looked older than most of the girls there - I was! They were in high school! Talk about a Risk Management nightmare.

I would say the closed parties were the best ones - either with the invites or the guest lists. I always had the most fun at those. One fraternity is incredibly smart - their parties are BYO, if you leave their house with keys in your hand they do everything short of making you take a Breathalyzer, and they will not let you in without an invite unless you BEG. I was DDing one night and they sniffed my drink (a completely evil Vanilla Coke) and made me do a bunch of sobriety tests. They finally calmed down when I told them there was an international officer staying at my house!

[33girl]

Neighborhood people as in people they know (i.e. might have met at jobs or whatever) or just random people?

Ours were usually open door for students w/ payment at the door. (Keep in mind this is quite a while ago) You could tell by the dress whether they were students or hoopies. Once at a party after I graduated, some HIGH SCHOOL girls came walking on in. I had a fit and didn't shut up until they left. Under 21 is bad enough, under 18 is ridiculous.

[Rudey]

Originally posted by 33girl
Neighborhood people as in people they know (i.e. might have met at jobs or whatever) or just random people?

Ours were usually open door for students w/ payment at the door. (Keep in mind this is quite a while ago) You could tell by the dress whether they were students or hoopies. Once at a party after I graduated, some HIGH SCHOOL girls came walking on in. I had a fit and didn't shut up until they left. Under 21 is bad enough, under 18 is ridiculous.

Some guys don't mind hooking up with their brothers' little sisters. I'm talking full on open to neighborhood people who you don't even know really.

-Rudey

[33girl]

Originally posted by Rudey
I'm talking full on open to neighborhood people who you don't even know really.

nooooooooooo way. Funk dat.

[aephi alum]

Back in the day, fraternity parties ranged from guest list only, to guest list for guys and open door for girls, to open to any college student (must show college ID to get in but it could be from any area school, not necessarily the school the chapter was associated with). Usually with an open party you would have to sign in.

I have never seen a party open to random people from the neighborhood.

There's been a big crackdown on alcohol and parties, though, and I think most parties are guest list only now. Things that used to be commonplace (not enforcing your guest list, kegs, unattended bars, pledge bartenders who would cheerfully ignore the big black X on your hand, etc) are now strictly verboten.

[breathesgelatin]

At W&L, the school requires that all fraternity parties be open.

The student phone book ususally serves as the guest list, but in reality anyone can just walk on in for free.

All sorority parties and events are invitation only.

[Kevin]

We only host parties with guest lists and closed doors. To my knowledge, we've never had alcohol at any of our events.

However, if a member throws a party on his own at his house, whatever that individual wants goes.

[AlphaXiGirl]

Originally posted by breathesgelatin
At W&L, the school requires that all fraternity parties be open.

The student phone book ususally serves as the guest list, but in reality anyone can just walk on in for free.

All sorority parties and events are invitation only.

Of course, I don't know the W&L rules/polices so I'll take your words as truth but that doesn't make any sense to me. Why would a university want open fraternity parties? And, if I am one of the FIPG groups on your campus, the first time that someone got hurt at a party and wanted to sue the fraternity I'd turn around and put the blame on the university - "well, we have national policies to control attendance at events but the university superceded our authority and made us allow anyone to enter...."

In a legal setting, I don't think that using the telephone book as a guest list is going to do anyone any favors.

I can't think of a single reason that a university would want to add to their liability by having this policy in place. Is it a written policy?

[sugar and spice]

The fraternities here almost always at least go through the pretense of making up a guest list, but as the night wears on they don't always follow it to the letter. You can usually get in if you're attractive and female, and/or tell them "I'm an ABC." Sometimes "I know so-and-so" works. And if there's an entire mob of you and the guys at the door at being lazy, they'll usually let you in rather than try and stop ten of you at once.

So a lot of parties are definitely not to-the-letter on the guest list thing, but I've never been to a party that was truly "open door." The entire neighborhood that Greek Row is in is composed of college students, so you don't get many randoms who aren't UW students, and high school students are -- strangely enough -- pretty rare, at least at the parties I've been to.

The police near campus are pretty relaxed about the fraternity parties here, as long as you follow certain policies, and the guest list is something they insist on.

[Rudey]

Originally posted by AlphaXiGirl
Of course, I don't know the W&L rules/polices so I'll take your words as truth but that doesn't make any sense to me. Why would a university want open fraternity parties? And, if I am one of the FIPG groups on your campus, the first time that someone got hurt at a party and wanted to sue the fraternity I'd turn around and put the blame on the university - "well, we have national policies to control attendance at events but the university superceded our authority and made us allow anyone to enter...."

In a legal setting, I don't think that using the telephone book as a guest list is going to do anyone any favors.

I can't think of a single reason that a university would want to add to their liability by having this policy in place. Is it a written policy?

My university had a bunch of houses throw parties open to all students. It was basically what happened every weekend like clockwork. One fraternity even ran something called "Bar night" every wednesday and had free keg beer and charged for bottles of better beer. All were well attended. They guaranteed your name would be well known and out there.

The university had no power with all the money it had. It tried to regulate but each house showed up with a lawyer and the university just reminded students that while they couldn't go after the fraternity, they could go after the individual students. What was the response of every fraternity? To never disclose who your members are. It's someone else's word against yours that you're in ABC.

-Rudey

[Sister Havana]

All the fraternity parties at IU were closed-door, guest list only parties. If the doors were open to all women, I never knew. Not only that, but the ones I attended, you had to go through this whole maze to get to the party. You couldn't just go down to the basement or whatever...you would go like up the stairs, through one of the hallways, down another set of stairs, through a couple rooms, and finally to the basement or wherever the party was.

[breathesgelatin]

Originally posted by AlphaXiGirl
I can't think of a single reason that a university would want to add to their liability by having this policy in place. Is it a written policy?

Yes. Because the school is 85% Greek the school has mandated this. If non-Greeks were excluded from parties for whatever reasons they would basically have no social life.

[33girl]

Also remember W & L only has around 2000 students. It's not like it is a Penn State-size school. If you are an a-hole at a party, word will get around very quickly.

[AlphaXiGirl]

Originally posted by breathesgelatin
If non-Greeks were excluded from parties for whatever reasons they would basically have no social life.

So, let me get this straight. I don't have to pay dues, attend meetings, take vows, or do anything else remotely giving rights of greek membership, yet I get to partake in the fun that abounds at fraternity parties???? and the University has mandated this????

Who cares if they have a social life. If they don't like not having a social life then they should "Go Greek"....also, isn't there a campus wide organization that hosts events for the entire campus? Why do the fraternities have to provide a social life for the entire campus? I can't believe the national organizations aren't up in arms over that.

I guess I am shocked that a University would add so much liability for the sake of 15% of the student population - that, I might add, had the opportunity to join one of these organizations or, perhaps, start their own.

As far as being an a-hole at the party - it looks like even if you were an a-hole, you would still have open access to the fraternity parties. I'm sure that the worst offenders could have university sanctions including being banned from fraternity parties but just your average, run-of-the-mill a-hole could attend forever.