The post-Rolling Stone frat rules won’t make our parties any safer

Sorry first years – this is why you can’t party with us

Last year, it felt like the University Virginia existed entirely in the media spotlight.

The publication – and subsequent retraction – of the infamous Rolling Stone article, “A Rape on Campus”,  not to mention a series of personal tragedies and an incident of alleged police brutality on The Corner, naturally pervaded the collective mindset of the student body.

But now there is the Class of 2019, the freshman year: somewhat mercifully spared from the trauma of the past year at UVA, and undeniably ready to party. Not so fast, first years – partying just got harder.

The author, right, and a fraternity brother, at Foxfield

While in the past, fraternities served as the definitive introduction to college partying, getting into these parties (already needlessly difficult) is more difficult nowadays. Many of you may have already experienced this through the unwelcome discovery that there are now enforced “lists” for parties, and – *gasp* – you didn’t make the cut.

The requirement of guest lists is just one facet of the new Fraternal Organization Agreement (FOA) that took effect at the beginning of 2015. As tempting as it may be to enjoy the potential absence of first years at our parties, it’s no secret that fraternities are unhappy with the new FOA and the way that the University is implementing it. As a third year member of a UVA fraternity, I know the arguments well.

Following Rolling Stone’s article last November, which largely blamed UVA’s Greek culture for the school’s problem with sexual assault, the administration immediately revoked the charters of all fraternities and said it wouldn’t reinstate them until every fraternity had agreed to the new FOA.

I’m the last person to make the case that white males at UVA are being systematically oppressed and to demand your sympathy. Regardless of the truth of the Rolling Stone article’s claims, sexual assault was, and still is, a problem at the University, and if the destruction of fraternities’ reputations could solve this problem, I’d gladly choose that option. Only a hugely self-important tool would demand the existence of his social club at the cost of a sexual assault epidemic at the University.

The infamous Rolling Stone article of November 2014, which was retracted in April.

However, the new FOA is poorly conceived. Its main focus seems to be to protect the image of the University instead of actually solving the problem of sexual assault.

Fraternities became the bearer of blame for the university’s sexual assault issues during the mad five months before Rolling Stone retracted its article in April. Now we are living under new rules whose technical details were poorly planned to combat many of the dangers that the school claimed fraternities presented.

For example, fraternities now must hire third-party security for their parties. While ostensibly a good idea, the school provides no subsidies for fraternities with lower annual dues, essentially making it easier for large fraternities to host parties than it is for small ones. It is the kind of extra cost that will make fraternities more socially exclusive. And these larger fraternities are often the ones most well-known for their debauchery, meaning it’s possible that the University has actually made it harder for certain fraternities to host parties it would deem “safe”.

The FOA now also prohibits serving jungle juice at parties. From personal experience, the punch we served was 8% alcohol by volume, admittedly fairly strong. However, in its place the school mandated that fraternities can now serve wine, usually around 12% ABV. While this is just one example, in the case of our fraternity the new FOA directly contributed to us serving stronger drinks at our parties.

Frat drinking continues.

Finally, the FOA does nothing to bolster the Inter-Fraternity Council’s Party Patrol system for regulating events. Party Patrol consists of fraternity members who attend other fraternities’ parties and theoretically report any violations of the FOA. However, at our last event the Party Patrol representative informed us that in exchange for a beer, he wouldn’t look too closely at anything. Clearly, the FOA can only function to the extent that Party Patrol enforces it.

Believe it or not, first years, we wish you could come to our parties. In addition to it being a great tool for rush, we actually like some of you (but don’t let that go to your heads). I’d much rather sit on a couch and make you guys freestyle rap to gain entry than have a security guard turn you away because you don’t know any upperclassmen yet.

The new FOA originated out of the University’s interest in diverting widespread criticism of its culture, so it isn’t surprising that it imposes a list of unnecessary restrictions which don’t seem to make parties any safer.

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