Surveying the frat scene, at age 55

Alumnus Randall Sims may be 55, but he still knows where to find a good party on a Saturday night.

The 1972 College graduate attends parties as one of the University's hired party monitors, who work with fraternities and sororities to make sure registered events are run safely and responsibly.

Not only has Sims worked for Penn and attended the University as an undergraduate and graduate student, but he is also a self-proclaimed "Penn person."

"My children were born at the hospital. My wife passed away there. The developments and milestones in my life are linked to Penn," Sims said.

Although Sims is losing his hair, his gregarious nature makes him an approachable figure at campus parties.

"Most of the parties I go to, students approach me and want to talk to me. One slant is, well, I'm the old person there, but the other slant is I'm a Penn person, and we have that in common."

The University mainly recruits graduate students to join its staff of some 25 monitors, and Sims said that the average age is "30-something."

Sims is currently the assistant to the dean of enrollment services at the Community College of Philadelphia but says that his night job as a party monitor helps him stay connected with students and Penn.

At parties, he will discuss anything from the University's history to classes. He also dishes out advice to anyone who seeks it. He remembers discussing blues and jazz with a bass guitar-playing international student and discovering another student had done architectural work one summer at the same university that Sims' son attended.

Sims has been monitoring parties three to four times per year for the past three years.

"I don't want you to think the old dude is out every night trying to hang with young people," Sims said.

"You won't find me out there jammin' -- not that I don't dance at parties -- but that's inappropriate for the role. So, I won't be out there on the floor boogeying with them, but I will be listening to the band and appreciating some of the music that they have at the parties," he added.

Despite the many years that Sims spent on campus as a student, it is his job as a party monitor that has allowed him to step inside many fraternity houses for the first time.

When he was an undergraduate, fraternities did not invite black students to rush or pledge their organizations.

"I would see men come and go from the houses on the weekends. I'd hear the music and see the overflow from the parties. I played football, and I went to class with some of the young men, so I interacted with them in that way," Sims said. "But I had no idea what happened with fraternities. We were just not part of it. It was kind of a closed society in a sense."

Now Sims sees black students who are social chairs and presidents of fraternities.

"We have meaningful intellectual exchanges," Sims said.

According to Director of Alcohol Policy Initiatives Stephanie Ives, Sims is well-liked by his fellow monitors.

"He's got great skills to make it a very communicative, respectful, beneficial relationship," Ives said. "Even at one o'clock in the morning when people are tired and the music is loud, he does a great job."

When Sims is not monitoring parties, he enjoys immersing himself in Penn's culture. On his breaks from work, Sims sometimes goes down to Houston Hall to watch the ballroom dance club or a film viewing.

"This is a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week community. Always has been, always will be," Sims said. "It amazes me how it changes. People's dynamics change, the times change. It gives me a chance to see this fascinating kind of complex institution."

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