To register, or not to register?
Each week, various Greek organizations must decide whether to hold a formal party.
Increasingly, the answer is no.
The number of registered parties has declined significantly in the past several years, according to members of the Greek community and University administrators.
Just 23 registered parties were thrown this fall, while 26 were thrown in the spring of 2004. These were the only numbers the University would provide.
Some cite the increased cost of throwing such parties and the decrease of eligible chapters as possible reasons for the decline.
The current process for registering parties has been in place since 1999 and was designed to create a safer party environment for students, according to Stephanie Ives, the Alcohol Policy Initiatives director.
"I think that the on-campus registered event is one of the safest events we can have," Ives said.
However, in order to throw a registered party, fraternities must comply with an extensive set of regulations. These include hiring bartenders and security, checking identification to make sure students are at least 21 and only serving beer or malt beverages in cans or bottles.
While these events are generally safer, the rules lead to significantly more spending by the chapters. Fraternities are not provided with any funding for registered events.
Registered parties "are definitely more expensive," said Wharton junior Leo Spaeder, President of the Sigma Nu fraternity.
While Spader said that this does not deter his fraternity from throwing registered events completely, "more University funding would help," he said.
He believes that the limits on types of alcohol served at registered events hurts attendance.
"I think we should be allowed to serve mixed drinks, since we have monitors there," he said.
If mixed drinks could be served at registered parties, students would be less inclined to go off-campus for unregistered events, he said.
Ives said that the expensive nature of registered parties had nothing to do with the decline in numbers. She attributed the decrease to the fact that a few chapters are on probation.
There are currently 29 registered fraternity chapters, as opposed to 32 in 1999.
Ives noted that this fall semester had a particularly low number of registered parties due to the social freeze on Greek organizations instituted following the fall and resulting critical injury of a Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity brother at the Psi Upsilon house.
"All of a sudden your numbers decline significantly," Ives said, "but it's not as bad as it looks."
Both she and InterFraternity Council president Spencer Scharff commented on the change in leadership of Pi Lambda Phi, which used to throw weekly registered happy hour parties, but no longer does.
Engineering junior Peter Aquart, current vice president of the IFC and former chapter president of Kappa Sigma, said he believes that "cost is a major issue, but it's definitely not limited to that."
Scharff hopes to find a way to provide funding for "requirements such as doormen and bartenders, [but] not beverages."
Ives said that it is possible to throw an inexpensive registered event. "There's no policy mandating that [chapters] have to hire professionals," she said.
And while it's true that the alcohol policy does not require the use of professionals, fraternities must use them in order to earn Risk Reduction Awards -- stipends given to chapters who consistently throw safe events.
Scharff's main plan to increase the number of events lies in the education of chapter leaders regarding the policies.
"The key is to educate and to get [rid] of this misconception" that registered parties are difficult to throw, he said.
He plans to hold forums with chapter presidents to encourage discussions about increasing the appeal of registered parties, in addition to educating fraternity members about the alcohol policy.
The fact that a party is registered doesn't necessarily draw students to the event.
College freshman Megan Carlin said that if there is a band or dancing at a party, she will attend whether it is registered or not.
But "if it's just people socializing, me and my friends tend to go off-campus," she said, citing the need for proper age identification as an issue.
Spaeder said that the registered events thrown by his fraternity are more or less equal in attendance to non-Greek, off-campus events.
"Free booze, whatever the kind, will always attract people," he said.
Scharff is looking forward to addressing the issue.
"I hope to see the number of registered parties ... significantly increase," he said.
