First IFC parties comply with U.'s alcohol policy

Monitors checked ID at the door and the parties were both BYOB. The InterFraternity Council's first two officially registered parties of the semester occurred without incident and upheld the University's new alcohol policy, Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs Director Scott Reikofski said. The Zeta Beta Tau fraternity held its party at its house at 235 S. 39th Street on Friday from 10:30 p.m. to 2 a.m., and the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity mixed with the Delta Delta Delta sorority on Saturday from 10 p.m. to midnight at the DKE house at 307 S. 39th Street. Reikofski said he hopes the alcohol policy -- which includes a ban on hard liquor at registered undergraduate events, a stipulation that alcohol distribution be allowed only on a BYOB basis and end at 1 a.m. as well as a stricter monitoring system -- will continue to be supported at future events this year. "I hope [the parties' success] is an indication the students are going to be taking care of each other and abiding by the policies that they helped to create," Reikofski said. ZBT President Jonathan Marcus said the large number of people at the party made the event difficult to watch over. According to Marcus, the house -- which periodically stopped admitting guests throughout the night due to overflow -- was filled to capacity. To encourage a non-alcoholic atmosphere, the fraternity set up a table offering varieties of soda. A Daily Pennsylvanian staff writer who attended the ZBT party reported that monitors checked the identification of all guests and that the fraternity stopped serving alcohol at 1 a.m. Stephanie Ives, the University's new alcohol coordinator, and Larry Moses, program director for the Bicultural InterGreek Council, attended the ZBT party with two trained monitors who checked for identification. Those over 21 were given a stamp on their hand to designate legal status. Ives was unavailable for comment and Moses refused to comment for this article. Students in attendance at the ZBT function said they were surprised to see the alcohol policy taking effect so quickly. "I was amazed that there was no open distribution of beer, and security was really tight," said Wharton sophomore Sugata Ray. DKE President Kevin Heck, a College senior, said the alcohol policy was also enforced at his fraternity's much smaller party with Tri-Delt. "Mixers are very different from large-scale parties? they're a lot easier to control," Heck said. The University sent two monitors to the event, which attracted approximately 65 members of DKE and Tri-Delt. The monitors -- who stopped in and out throughout the night -- were present at the event for a total of 45 minutes. "They did the same job as the OFSA monitors but were here longer," Heck noted. Tri-Delt President Nicole Melchiorre, a College senior, added that "it wasn't hard for us to uphold the policies -- most of them were in effect before." Melchiorre added that she thought the monitors had a greater presence than in the past. "But I don't think that it hindered our having fun in any way," she said.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.