Sorority event has history of problems

A sorority philanthropy event that got out of hand Thursday has had crowd-control issues in past years as well.

Last year at Alpha Chi Omega's Big Man on Campus event -- held at a Northern Liberties nightclub -- many students who had purchased tickets ahead of time were not able to gain entry due to the large number of people who arrived.

College junior Tracy Bienenfeld, who was at last year's event, said she saw crowd-control problems.

She said there was pushing in the line, as well as several minor fights. She saw three to five police cars arrive at the club and one student put into a patrol car.

Bienenfeld planned on going to this year's BMOC event but turned around after hearing that it had been canceled.

At the event at World Cafe Live this year, there were two arrests and several altercations between police and students.

Police were called to the scene to help disperse a crowd of 400 to 600 people outside the venue, located at 3025 Walnut St. Two students were arrested, and several others were detained and released in the aftermath.

The Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs and AXO's national organization are both conducting investigations.

BMOC has traditionally been one of the largest and best-attended sorority events at Penn, said 2005 College graduate and former AXO member Rosemary Connors, who helped plan last year's event.

OFSA Director Scott Reikofski and AXO National Marketing Manager Janine Hippensteel were unaware of any issues with crowd control in past years. Both BMOC events were registered with the University.

Senior Class President Pierre Gooding has attended the event for the past two years -- this year as a participant.

"There was a massive backup of people, and the line wasn't moving," Gooding said of last year's event.

"The problems were similar to this year in terms of the management warning students ... and the crowd being reckless about not being let in," he added.

Gooding -- who last year arrived late -- waited half an hour before he got in.

"It didn't get to the level of chaos of this year, but it was still a problem," Gooding said.

"It's going to be hard to get people in a precise line when they've been drinking and you make them wait for 45 minutes," Bienenfeld said.

Connors -- who arrived early to last year's event and did not see the crowd -- said the sorority never had any serious problems with the event while she was a student.

AXO later refunded the money of students who did not get in. It is unknown whether the sorority will do the same this year. Only about 100 students were allowed to enter the venue Thursday.

AXO President Gretchen Berlin, a Nursing senior, did not return calls for comment.

The future of the event is still unknown, but there are no current plans to cancel it.

"It's obviously an unfortunate circumstance, and we want to do whatever we can to make sure things like that don't happen in the future," Hippensteel said.

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