New Greek Social Policy to Take Effect

The IFC President’s Council recently voted and passed a new social policy to take effect in the next semester.

In interest of full disclosure, I was present at the vote and abstained on my chapter’s behalf. I spoke with Luke Pierce about releasing details of the policy and agreed to withhold them until the following Tuesday (11/17), at which point a press release was to be issued. That release was never issued. Since then, posts have been made on CollegeACB.com filled with rumors and vile posts.

In an effort to help squash the rumors, we are releasing some details that should have already been made available to Greek Chapters. This is being done without the authorization of IFC leadership. More will be available when the IFC officially releases the press release.

The IFC has been working for several months to ease the greater community’s concerns about Greek social conduct. The local government has expressed concerns about party sizes, the community has concerns over frequency, and there is also concern over party and social management to make sure all Greeks and participants are safe. Thus, a new social policy is to be implemented.

All parties will have guest lists not to exceed 300 people or the applicable amount of people the fire marshal deems safe for the building.
All people inside the building must be listed on the guest list, residents of the host chapter included.
Wednesdays will no longer be available for registration of social functions.
All socials must be registered. A fee will be assessed with the registration.
A social is currently defined as “any period alcohol is present in a common area”.
Socials greater than 50 persons (exception if only 2 organizations are meeting) must register as a party.
Parties are exempt from registration fees.
Parties are required to hire two IFC contracted bouncers at (currently quoted) $16/hour for the duration of the party.
Bouncers will maintain the guest list only to be altered by the chapter president or designated representative.
Away bars will no longer be permitted. All alcohol must be served by the host chapter from one location. Other chapters may donate to the bar and have their beverages labeled for exclusive service to their chapter members. The host is responsible for the well being of all participants. This allows them to regulate proper alcohol consumption.
Bouncers will conduct sweeps of the party to make sure they are in compliance with current party and social standards (Alternate beverages, individual snacks, no kegs, etc…).

All of these new procedures will be in place during the next semester. This will be a huge change in the current social culture at Penn State, but the IFC believes these changes and compromises will help keep Greeks, independents, and local residents safe and allow Greeks to operate quality social events.

Updates will be posted if the IFC officially responds to this post.

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Frederick Johnson

$16 dollars an hour? How do I sign up to be a bouncer??
Lee

@Frederick
Haha that was the first thing me and my roommate said when we read this
Ben

It appears that all these rules are steps to help in accountability. That would make it easier for the IFC to point a finger at someone in a case such a Joe Dado. Will this help greek life?
GTWMA

It’s a good start. Now, let’s see some real teeth in Greek Life policies. For example, first-year rush and THON participation should not be allowed for those Greek (or other) student organizations that have an alcohol violation. You furnish minors, you forfeit rush and THON.
dennis

wow i guess they’re really bumming over that #1 party school ranking, huh?
?

so…no more parties or fun at penn state. cool. watch the tuition rise for current students because people wont want to go here anymore…
LOVE ME SOME FRATS

I don’t define “fun” to be at frats. But, hey, it’s okay to be upset. However, if you get into the party, think of how much Natty you can suck down, because no one else is there to drink it. Hah.
Keepin it gangsta’

this is one of the dummest things i have ever heard in my enitre life. OKAY GUYS, BECAUSE YOU DRINK ALCOHOL YOU CAN NOT GO RAISE MONEY FOR KIDS WITH CANCER.
student

i support these changes, but i wonder if/how they will actually be enforced. i haven’t been to a frat in ages and i am by no means an expert on penn state greek like, but haven’t they always had some policies about being on lists, etc.?

to sum up, good job ifc, but i’m glad i’m not a freshman anymore…bye bye #1 party school ranking
Anonymous

I didn’t notice anywhere that you ahd to be 21 to attend these parties… I’m assuming this is also part of the rule? If you’re going to curb underage drinking, maybe you should make sure nobody drinking is underage… just a thought.
But I applaud the IFC for taking these steps to improve the reputaion and quality of Penn State’s Greek Life.
Po

Couple of thoughts here…
-Typical knee jerk reaction. I wonder how much pressure came from PSU administrators because of the press from the Dado case and recent hazing violations. I imagine that Penn State pushed for more regulation, but that IFC had to compromise.

-BUT these new regulations aren’t going to curb underage drinking or binge drinking. Instead, it will push these problems to the apartments, houses, and dorms downtown. Frats will continue to hold unofficial parties at off-property apartments as they’ve been doing for years. Seems like the polciies may harm some recruitment, too. And I think bouncers are just going to complicate things more between chapter members and visitors… more problems and fights may result with an independent authority present.

-Finally, I think this will make the Greek community even more exclusive at Penn State. It’s not going to mean the end of Greek Life or change the social scene too much, but may make “being greek” even more of a label. BTW, this is a neutral statement, I’ve never been involved with frats beside partying there when I was a freshman and I have nothing against Greeks.
John Fredericks

agreed that is ridiculous, especially when a majority of thon committees do the exact same thing hahaha
GTWMA

There are PLENTY of groups that can take the place of those that lose their spots. There is NO shortage of organizations looking to particpate.

If you have to use alcohol to motivate your THON committee, you have a drinking problem.
GTWMA

Or maybe long overdue reaction to an important problem at Penn State. Who cares where the pressure came from? The key issue is that responsible parties on all sides recognize that the party situation has gotten way out of hand the in the last several years and Penn State, IFC, other student organizations, and State College are a decade behind other schools and communities in developing and implementing effective solutions to balancing academic and social life at universities.

You are right that these regulations alone will not reduce dangerous and destructive drinking. As every community that has dealt with these issues shows, it takes a comprehensive approach that involved all parts of the community, not just IFC. But, in combination with these other things, changes like this are part of the solution.
Anonymous

I feel this unfairly targets a lot of fraternities that have long been responsibly holding parties. At my particular fraternity, we already go by the regulations put in place by the ifc. Because of this we have never had any major problems, and have never had any violations of the rules put in place. If Ifc just inforced the rules they already had, we wouldn’t have these issues.

This is also unfair to the smaller or newer fraternities. Though I am not in this situation, I am sure many are. When parties are 3.5 hours long on average, that means at each party they must pay an additional $112. This is chump change for some of the larger fraternities, but for the smaller one this will make it virtually impossible to host parties.

The real problem is often in appartments. Have I ever gotten too drunk at a fraternity? No. But I have gotten ‘shitfaced’ at a fair share of appartments. They have no regulations. We serve beer, they serve liquor. We have bartenders, they have none. We keep track of who enters, their doors are wide open.
Frederick Johnson

No one implied that there was a shortage of organizations looking to participate, but honestly, who is stopping these organizations from being involved? It’s certainly not the fraternities, and if you are hoping that alcohol will remove a fraternity to allow your organization a spot, well I think there are better uses for your time and motivation.
GTWMA

And that’s why a nusiance party ordinance is needed. It applies to both Greek and non-Greek parties.

Note that socials smaller than parties (less than 50 people) do not have to have bouncers–they merely need to pay a registration fee of unnamed size.

And, your first point is part of the problem with the Greek system at PSU. There are too few carrots, in addition to the lack of enforcement of the existing penalties. Real rewards. Real penalties. Real accountability.
GTWMA

THON rules and space are stopping them, and I’m sure the realize that IFC and Panhellenic are the two co-sponsors of the THON. Greek organizations have a lot of influence in THON, though it has certainly declined in recent years. In any case, because there is not enough space for all organizations and dancers that want to participate, THON holds a lottery to allocate spots among those that are new or raised too little from prior years. In addition, they reallocate spots to all organizations that raised the minimum number of dollars based upon their fundraising level from the prior year. So, every year organizations can see their number of slots increase, stay the same, or decline. And THON has an extensive set of penalties that can be applied to accounting for fundraising and dancer spots for inappropriate actions. I’m merely suggesting that they consider adding organizational alcohol violations to that list.
grad

Adding penalties for things that are completely unrelated to Thon is ridiculous. How many independents (non-Greeks) that are involved have gotten underages? Been issued summons? Traffic tickets? Where do we draw the line?

Do we just enforce these penalties on organizations? What if an independent is at a birthday party at his friend’s apartment where there is underaged drinking? Will they be penalized? How about if a fraternity has a party, and the dancer for their organization happens to be out of town and not even involved?

It is very easy to vilify Greek organizations and one of the first areas that is suggested to be penalized is involvement in Thon. Thon is one of the best philanthropic things the Greek community does (top contributing division). Why take that away from them? It seems very counterproductive to stifle the good things they do in order to attempt to stop the “bad.”
GTWMA

Nothing is unrelated. The sooner you understand that, the better. Students tell me all the time that they want administrators and town leaders to treat them like adults. That means you better understand that this applies not just to the respect you desire, but also to the responsibilities we accept to one another. Yes, I would argue that anyone or any organization sanctioned through JA could have that sanction tied to THON penalties in some way. It’s got nothing to do with Greek or non-Greek. It’s about the behavior we expect of each other in a community we share. We draw the line at those behaviors that we decide present a sufficient problem for that community.

THON is a valuable part of our community. Those individuals and organizations that show they respect that community on a consistent basis in every way should be rewarded. Those individuals and organizations that show they cannot show that respect, who believe so much that their personal satisfaction is more important than the community we share that they violate the law, destroy property, and otherwise harm others, should have the privilege of participating in an important activity like THON reduced or taken away from them.
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