After the recent Interfraternity Council moratorium set by Penn State in light of the death of student Timothy Piazza after he fell at Beta Theta Pi fraternity, the university’s Panhellenic Council confirmed its commitment to the new social regulations. The university announced these significant changes to Greek Life regulations earlier this month, including a ban of all social events involving alcohol for the remainder of the semester.

Though these new changes more directly affect IFC, sorority chapters that don’t follow the new regulations will face mediation with the possibility of additional repercussions, which are further explained in the Panhel bylaws.

“We are committed to respecting this by not engaging in social activities involving alcohol in the fraternities at this time. We would never want to jeopardize their ability to remain on campus,” Panhel President Amanda Saper said. “Panhellenic sororities are allowed to host our regular formals at third party vendors.”

Since Penn State sororities do not have houses, they are forced to rely on these third party vendors for any formals or dated functions for the rest of the semester. Saper said Panhel sees this as an opportunity for sororities to grow and rebuild the Greek community.

This situation has created an open forum among many chapters to discuss and identify issues they’ve noticed within the Greek system. Sororities have also held other events within their own chapter memberships to replace the social events they would usually attend in conjunction with fraternities. Saper said she believes these positive changes are likely to continue in the long run.

“We are focusing less on what we cannot do and more on what we can,” Saper said. “My greatest hope is that these changes will warrant more conversation between Panhellenic, IFC, and the university.”