Sororities NOT upholding Alcoholess Mixing

[ZTAngel]

Most campuses have gone dry over the past couple of years. This means that if a fraternity were to have a party that involves serving alcohol they must register the party with the University. Everyone gets carded by a police officer before walking in and they must sign an attendance sheet. It's a little annoying. Especially when you're standing outside your boyfriend's fraternity house in a looooong line in the freezing cold. But, it makes school and fraternity less liable in case something were to happen to the individual.

[hilbilymel]

My sorority is not an NPC but we concider our alcohol policy to be strict. I'm alum now so I'll share what I remember and ask you to clarify a little bit of yours with me.

• We have alcohol free housing
  
• Any event with alcohol must be 3rd party vendor
  
• Each event must be voted on by the chapter by the chapter seperately and the names recored in the minutes.
  
• There must be an alcohol education event the semester it is to take place and only those who attend and are of legal age may drink

[p]First what does co-sponsoring mean does that mean financially or does that mean just being invited. Also are there rules on where that can and can't be held. For example some fraternities around here have field parties. Since these are not in the fraternity facility does that mean the sorority could co-sponsor it.

[p] Also I can't tell the difference between the Support policy and the Functions policy.
[p]
[B]Functions policy - meaning will co-sponsor event in fraternity facility only if the function is alcohol free
[p][B]
Support policy - meaning will support co-sponsorship of alcohol free functions in fraternty facilities
[p]
The other question is these rules mention co-sponsoring do they also apply to events with members only or other situations?

Originally posted by shadokat

So that everyone is aware of where their groups stand, the following is the NPC sororities and their policy tier.

Facilities policy - meaning will co-sponsor event in fraternity facility only if the fraternity facility is alcohol free: Alpha Xi Delta, Kappa Kappa Gamma and Pi Beta Phi

Functions policy - meaning will co-sponsor event in fraternity facility only if the function is alcohol free: AXO, ADPi, AEPhi, AGD, AOII, Alpha Phi, ASA, XO, Tri Delta, DG, D Phi E, DZ, Gamma Phi Beta, Theta, KD, Phi Mu, Tri Sigma, Theta Phi Alpha and ZTA.

Support policy - meaning will support co-sponsorship of alcohol free functions in fraternty facilities: AST, Phi Sig, SDT, SK.

[kristiAZD]

I am an Alpha Xi on a small campus that is dry, and I will tell you that this new rule has really put a damper on our social life. When I was pledging I went to mixers in fraternity houses and I had such a blast. Little did I know they would be my last. Since this rule has come into effect, we hardly ever have mixers with anyone, nor do fraternities want to because of the pain to do something outside of the house. We live in a rural-type area, and there aren't any places for us to mix at. Therefore, we don't get to have all the fun that we used to. My boyfriend is a fraternity member, and I am current sweetheart of their house. Many of my sisters date his brothers so there are many of us down there independently all the time. But now, because of this rule, if there are three of us there at one time it can be considered a sorority function and the entire sorority can be written up. It is not fair! Who says I can't, or someone else can't go see thier boyfriend if they want to? It's ridiculous. All we seem to do anymore is do philanthropy work. Going out and having fun together is a thing of the past now that this rule is in effect because we have no where to go. This campus is dry, but I am aware that people still sneak alcohol into their rooms, etc. This is practically impossible to control. Why does this rule apply to us if we have a dry campus?

I also want to say though that as an executive board member I met with representatives from our nationals and I know why we have this strict policy. Policies like this one are made because something bad happened somewhere else and this rule protects something from happening somewhere else, and the legal issues that come along with it. I understand all this, but I guess I don't understand why it makes a difference on a dry campus like mine. I mean, we had to call Nationals and ask permission to go over to their house to held bulid our homecoming float in the basement. What is going on here?

[LexiKD]

I do feel for you since you live in a rural place, but are you sure AXD regualtions were not similiar to this prior to the resolution?

That has always been my issue with this...all the groups at my school had more srtict regualtions than the NPC resolution and still felt betrayed....why was no one following the rules from the begining?

On my old campus it just made us more aware of what we were taking for granted and I think by now it isn't a big deal...but we have a whole downtown area to use for 3rd party vendors.

Good Luck, maybe someone will see the market for a place to host mixers and start up a business...we can always hope!

[33girl]

Originally posted by LexiKD
That has always been my issue with this...all the groups at my school had more srtict regualtions than the NPC resolution and still felt betrayed....why was no one following the rules from the begining?

Until this select 2000 jazz all started, all our policy said was "An ASA will follow state and local laws with regard to alcoholic beverages." In other words, 21's could drink anytime, co-sponsored function or not. If we would have been in Canada, we could have all drank. So we WERE following the rules by having mixers & restricting underagers from drinking. I don't know about the groups at your school, but I had assumed most groups had similar wording.

The reason this policy has met with such resistance at rural schools (and I DEFINITELY went to a rural school) is that there is rarely anyplace to hold events. I mean, we had the Moose hall, 3 hotels, and 4 bars. The bars are NOT going to give up a night's revenue for a private party (unless Bill Gates is throwing it) and the hotels are far too expensive to rent every week, unless it's for a special occasion like a formal. We just plain DO NOT have the funds for this sort of party - I mean, we had to scrape $$ together just to pay our dues. This policy is very unfair to chapters that don't have a lot of $$$ (which goes for most of the state schools up here) because even though the nationals can swear up and down "we're not mandating prohibition," when they pass policies that many chapters find impossible to follow, they are doing just that.

And I just want to say that "3 sisters is an event" thing is bullsh!t. Period. That seriously treads on freedom of association rights, IMO.

[LexiKD]

I understand the issue with being in a rural area, but AZD was at ECU and if I am correct we all had similar polices.

I know it is expensive, but I would assume an accident at a private place would be more to deal with in the long run...plus our groups do not pay, it is the fraternity that does.

Allowing college women to drink at private houses could have serious implications down the road...and has at some schools. Not to mention insurance would be hard to use if the chapter put the event together and something happend and then the sorority would be to blame b/c no company would cover such an event with so many uncontrolable factors.

[shadokat]

kristi--

I know what you mean about being in a rural area, but there are some ideas out there to help rural campuses. If your campus is truly interested in helping with these policies, band together your sororities and try to get a local business to be somewhere that you can have mixers. I know that one campus banded together and found a cheap bus company, and as long as all greeks only use their bus company, they get this ridiculously discounted rate. They found local businesses who were willing to allow them to use their facility earlier in the evening, then opening up the facility to the general public around 11 pm. They also decided that having less mixers, but more elaborate mixers would alleviate some of the cost. So they do a lot of four packs and six pack mixers, so that with more organizations, they can pay less for the mixer.

As for the "three sisters makes a co-sponsored function", look at it this way. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's going to be thought to be a duck. When someone sees a fraternity having a party and 2/3s of XYZ sororoity are there, people assume that the sorority is co-sponsoring, even if they aren't. By having these "numbers" in place, some groups feel they will be protecting themselves from liability.

I hope things get better for you

[33girl]

Originally posted by shadokat
As for the "three sisters makes a co-sponsored function", look at it this way. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's going to be thought to be a duck. When someone sees a fraternity having a party and 2/3s of XYZ sororoity are there, people assume that the sorority is co-sponsoring, even if they aren't. By having these "numbers" in place, some groups feel they will be protecting themselves from liability.

I hope things get better for you

Well, here is the way I look at that. We only had co-sponsored mixers on Thursdays or occasionally Wednesdays. That fact was known to the whole campus. Friday and Saturday if fraternities had parties, they were ALWAYS open or guest list. I mean, half our chapter practically lived at the Crow house, but no independent would ever go down there on Friday and say "Oh, there are many ASA's here...I guess this is an ASA-Crow mixer." People knew better than that.

Maybe holding co-sponsored parties to a certain night would alleviate that? I mean, people hang out with who they hang out with, and like Kristi, I think it's unfair to penalize people for wanting to hang out with their friends. If your friends are all at a party at XYZ, that's where you will want to go, and it DOESN'T mean you have to/plan to drink. We had several sisters who came down to Crows with us regularly and didn't drink anything other than pop the whole evening.

Lexi - re the fraternities paying instead of the sororities, they don't have the $$ either. We would all have loved to be able to go to the Loomis and close it for private parties every week, but we (the whole system "we") simply could not afford it.

[kristiAZD]

Thanks for all the advice everyone, but I don't think we're even allowed to have things in bars. It goes with our school policies too. We had an informal at an Elks lodge and we thought we followed all the rules (3rd party vendor, etc.) but we got in trouble with the school and Nationals about some thing we did wrong. I'm not exactly sure what it was because I was not in Exec. and I was not involved with chapter life, but we got written up just the same. It's almost like we're not allowed to have alcohol at our events at all anyways. That I think has more to do with the school. We have no hotels in town to hold things at. The major problem is that many of the fraternities don't want to have things outside their house or go off campus. Banding together with other sororities would be nice but I think all the other ones on campus don't have to follow this policy so they don't care. Policies like this were in effect, just more about National (USA) laws. This legislation is new b/c I read about it in an issue of our sorority's national magazine last year. I wish I could tell you more about the situation but I'm not Chapter Life so I can't tell you the rules in detail off the top of my head. There are A LOT of details.

[LexiKD]

Well, all that can differ from campus to campus but as long as we have food and nonalcholic drinks available we are ok with the club issue. I am sure some risk mgmt polices include a food to beverage sales ratio as well, I think that was ZTA and AOPi b/c they follow FIPG...is that right?

We have a birthday list, guest list, time limit, and wrist bands as well, it worked at my school...not a dry campus!

Good Luck!

[JadeSea325]

I am a member of a sorority as well as a photographer for an aforementioned company who services fraternities/sororities. When I first began my job I was non affiliated and my job became my opportunity to view organizations actions. Over the past 2 years, the rules have gotten extremely tight which not only limits myself as a member of a Greek organization but also of a manager of a thriving company who wants business to continue.

The rules put in place by Pan-Hel, were all decided by it's members. There was no governing body above it mandating what it should do. The rules are especially strict here at my school, with devastating consequences if broken. Yet...every weekend I have a photographer at a non-registered event that could inevitably contribute to the loss of the charter of an organization.

Good for my business....but I wonder if I have room for a conscience. Many sororities on this campus are on report, about to be on probation/suspended, and even looking at their chartering being revoked. The rules are clear...if you want to party, do it the "right" way. And I would almost bet there are only 2 events a month that are done the "right" way.

Maybe the rules were established to save the Greek community's image. Maybe no one has any intention of following them, but..they are the rules and they do carry stiff results if broken. At some point or another we've all done something illegal and gotten away with it. The more we get away will speeding..the more we speed and the more we think we just can't get caught. That was the truth here at JMU for a while...now. EVERYONE is getting caught. Instead of taking your chances and trying to "beat the system" It would probably be wise to sit back and let things settle down a little.

We can all have a good time, but I wouldn't want the Greek system to fall here because of something my group did. When you get in trouble...face the consequences and do better next time. We're supposed to be top examples of our organizations! Let's show everyone that we're not prudes, but we can be mature and responsible and not live up to the "typical Greek view" held by most non Greeks.

[ZetaLuvBunny]

There isn't alcohol at our mixers if they're on campus. However, if off campus, at a location that regularly serve alcohol, those who are **21 and up** can have alcohol. If they choose to do so, they must pay for it ON THEIR OWN (i.e. not using any of our funding to pay for the drinks). And YES, they are CARDED, because it would only be at a public place such as a restaurant, etc, and they CAN*NOT* wear letters while doing so (not even a mixer t-shirt with our letters on it).

[AOIIBrandi]

Not sure, things may have changed...but AOII had a policy even in 1994 that in order to have alcohol present a function had to be at a liscensed insured 3rd party establishment. However, if you were at a rural school and could establish that there were too few 3rd party establishments the chapter could get a waiver (this would impede on our ability to have mixers and could effect numbers). I know b/c it happened to my chapter. We had never given any thought to that policy (well we kinda ignored it b/c all the other orgs did too) until a consultant was down during Homecoming. We almost got in a lot of trouble, but she decided to help us get an emergency waiver instead.

So those that go to rural schools may want to check and see if their org offers some kind of waiver as well.

[LexiKD]

Jade, at my school, we did have under the table mixers that were not OK with our national guidlines. I speak generally, KD did not do this, we were a brand new chapter and had a national officer living with us the entire time. BUT I was on PH and I knew of many private parties in apartments or houses, no 3rd party vendors. I would like to see what happens when they do get caught.

PH has no control at my school regarding these parties, but it would be intresting to see what can be done. Our PH doesn't police our groups, but it would be nice to see all the groups take some responsibility for their actions and decided that rules were put in place for our safety and I fear that it will take an accident until everyone sees that.

[cherub]

What I've found most frustrating about this policy is that in Ontario, the legal drinking age is 19 which most of us at university are. We have ONE fraternity on campus, and they aren't dry (or if they are they're definitely NOT following it!). We used to go on bus trips to other nearby campuses to hang out with other GLOs since our campus has no real greek life, but it been REALLY difficult to get our chapter to change their outing habits.

Try telling someone who is legally allowed to drink that they can't go to a fraternity house that isn't dry...I'm on AAC and its been definitely been a fight this past year!

I understand the rationale behind the move, and I support it...but getting my chapter on board has a whole different angle to it.....