Students must bring their own beer to fraternity parties

Richard Montgomery High School '93 Rockville, Md. While the University has officially maintained a Bring Your Own Beer policy for several years, the policy has gone relatively unenforced -- until recently. In January, the Interfraternity Council announced that after five years of struggling with several different alcohol policies, a new policy was to be "strictly enforced." The decision was made in response to pressure from the Greek Alumni Council, which developed its own BYOB policy in 1993. Under the new "Greek Alcohol Management Policy," fraternities are prohibited from purchasing alcohol for consumption during social events. Instead, students attending the events will contribute alcohol to a pool. The policy is an attempt to transfer liability from fraternities to individual partygoers. "The BYOB policy removes liability from the chapters because they are not providing alcohol to anyone and consequently are not responsible for alcohol [consumption]," former IFC President and College senior Hayden Horowitz said. "Alcohol has become probably the most apparent issue surrounding risk management." Tricia Phaup, director of the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs, said the new policy makes it more difficult for underage students to drink at fraternity parties. "Fraternities take on a lot of responsibility on campus," she said. "They provide social life, but get blamed for the problems." So in January, when the IFC adopted its new policy, it agreed to "cooperate together to enforce it," according to former IFC Judicial Manager and College sophomore Josh Gottheimer. After the announcement, though, several fraternities were found to be in violation of the policy, which was enforced by alumni monitors. IFC President and College junior David Treat said the GAC and the IFC have continued to work on the specifics of monitoring procedures. Reports from monitors are currently forwarded to the Greek Peer Judicial Board, and chapters in violation of the policy may be placed on social probation for as long as three months. But with the increased monitoring has come student dissatisfaction with the new fraternity social scene. "Now that drinks are not on the house, there exists little motivation for celebrating in the Greek tradition," College freshman Daniel Unger said. "I think the parties suck since BYOB started. Turnout's been bad because people don't want to go [to fraternity parties] and not be able to get beer." Wharton freshman Daniel Mizukovski agreed. But in late March, the Undergraduate Assembly voted to allocate $10,080 for the Social Planning and Events Committee to pay for the cost of open BYOB parties. According to College senior and former SPEC President Lissette Monge, several parties a month will co-sponsored by SPEC, the IFC, Panhellenic Council and the BiCultural InterGreek Council, in order to take the financial burden off fraternities and sororities.