Before my freshman year, Vanderbilt University was a different place. At fraternity parties, you could get any kind of drink you wanted, drink from a keg, whatever. They were basically what I imagined typical Hollywood frat parties to be like. I’m not sure if my class jinxed it, but that all changed to what we now experience on a Friday or Saturday night from 10 p.m. – 2 a.m.
We attend an elite university, there is absolutely no question about it. The work hard, play hard mentality is alive and well Thursdays-Saturdays, with Tuesdays thrown in the mix if you are able to keep up with that lifestyle. Now, due to all of the new rules that have come to fraternity parties, people are drinking larger amounts of alcohol in shorter periods of time. Since the only way you can get alcohol at a party is if you bring your own beer, people are more inclined to pre-game harder and faster, rather than pace themselves with drinks throughout the night.
Now, with all the recent media exposure about sexual assaults in Greek communities, I understand the point of safety that the university and the Office of Greek Life are trying to get across. Girls, however, should not feel unsafe in a fraternity house. Fraternity brothers should be friends that we are able to go to in times of crisis, not people that we are supposed to fear. For example, I have had many of my guy friends take care of me and make sure I got home okay if I had too much to drink. Unfortunately, I am aware that not all people are as good-natured as my friends. Alcohol creates many grey-area situations and puts people at risk for not only being hurt by others, but hurting themselves too.
Which is why I wonder: Why don't we want all the alcohol out in the open, where it can be seen and monitored? The wristbands that one currently gets for checking in beer at a fraternity party could apply to how many drinks you have had. Once you cross a certain number, you cannot have any more. You could still show your ID to the security guards when you walk in the door and basically follow the same protocol that we do now, except you just have all your alcohol ready for use rather than people sneaking in mixed drinks into a party. Drinking in secret only makes situations worse.
Greek Life, I ask you to consider allowing a weekend or two of reversing the rules to the way things used to be. If all hell breaks lose, then I was wrong and I will willfully admit it. Maybe there will be less people getting kicked out of parties for being too drunk, and maybe people will realize that you do not have to be drunk to have fun at a frat party. I don’t know, but all of the rules about off campus, no drinking and what people call “no fun ever” seem to be rubbing this campus the wrong way. If you encourage us to drink in a safe environment, we are going to respond to that better than we respond to you imposing more rules on us. Half of the fraternities are on probation. I think that is a sign that you should give us a little more rope, and just hope we don’t hang ourselves with it. I don’t think we will, because as a member of the Greek community myself, I trust my fellow members of this community to better the situation and make all fraternity parties a safe and comfortable drinking environment for everyone.
