If the InterFraternity Council gets its way, students will be able to drink alcohol for an extra half-hour at registered parties.
Continuing with its attempt to increase the appeal of registered parties, the IFC has submitted several suggestions to the University's Alcohol Response Team, which is currently working on revisions to Penn's alcohol policy.
The IFC suggested that registered parties should be allowed to serve alcohol until 1:30 a.m., as opposed to 1 a.m. -- the current last call. The council also wants alcohol monitors to play a more visible role at parties by wearing T-shirts identifying themselves as officials.
The suggestions -- submitted to ART by IFC president Spencer Scharff -- were discussed and voted on by the IFC and chapter presidents.
ART is a group of students, faculty and administrators formed to address drinking culture at Penn. It met for the first time this year following the critical injury of College junior Matt Paris, who fell two stories over a stairway railing at a campus party.
Scharff, a College junior said that the IFC's goal is to "increase the workability and desirability of registered events."
He believes that the suggested changes regarding the visibility of alcohol monitors and the later end time for alcohol service should help with both goals.
Scharff's goal is to have students stay at registered parties longer, rather than leaving and going to bars near campus.
College junior and IFC Judicial Inquiry Board Manager David Kuhn said the group's intention is "to keep someone in a closed environment for as long as possible."
Though Kuhn noted that registered parties are not necessarily safer than bars, the Pi Kappa Alpha president did say that it was beneficial for students to be served by the same bartender for the duration of the night.
"Our approach is that there are some external factors we can control," Kuhn said.
The IFC believes that extending the drinking hours would give students less time to get from the closing of registered events to bars, which close at 2 a.m.
The IFC also suggested that alcohol monitors be visibly identifiable to both party guests and hosts by wearing a T-shirt or something of that nature.
Alcohol monitors attend all registered parties and report back to the Office of Alcohol Policy Initiatives with evaluations detailing how well party rules were followed. Monitors are often graduate students affiliated with the University.
The tendency has been for the monitors to blend in with party guests in order to accurately assess the fraternity hosts. However, both Scharff and Kuhn believe that were the monitors more easily recognized, guests and hosts will both be on better behavior.
Kuhn said that "by making [monitors] more visible, brothers will be encouraged to follow [party] guidelines as closely as possible."
One of Scharff's suggestions regarding the entertaining of guests in upstairs rooms was not endorsed by the IFC. Scharff thought that the policy should specify that brothers were only restricted from entertaining guests in upstairs rooms with alcohol, as opposed to rooms free of alcohol.
"We're not trying to limit hanging out in rooms," Scharff said regarding his suggestion. "We're trying to limit what goes against the policies of registered parties."
However, following discussions within the IFC, Scharff said he agrees with the decision to endorse the University's language and not make the change.
"Ultimately, we decided that it would be too difficult to monitor every room," he said.
