By
Cory Spiller
Rush 2000: close to six-hundred guys dressed to impress, running from frat house to frat house looking for their comfort zone, their happy place, their home away from home. These impressionable young men need protection, and the university has policies set up to protect them as well as to protect fraternities and sororities from some of their self-destructive qualities. The fact remains that underage drinking happens on this campus in astronomical numbers, in house parties, dorm rooms and fraternity houses. Yet dorms have RAs who bust residents regularly for drinking, and parties off campus are spoiled by the search lights of police helicopters. Drinking still goes at fraternities, but rather than being a crime, they have made it a privelidge of the greek system.
A greek privilege exists on our campus: an acceptance of partying and drinking exclusively for greeks. If you are a freshman, you are under 21, and you want to drink, fraternities may be your best option. There is a reason why citing students for minor in possesion is a growing industry. They don't, of course, catch many people, but enough to make it a token effort. So get to it! Rush! Six-hundred of your peers are three days ahead of you and the girls are done. If you can catch the eye of a fraternity, you can buy in to this institutionalized privilege, as well.
Fraternities have rules, and organizations to enforce them. They are the GAMMA rules, and the Interfraternity Council, or IFC. With their naively strict rules in hand, wearing shirts with "IFC" printed in huge yellow letters on the back, similar to "FBI" uniforms, the IFC hit the streets last night. They went to every fraternity house enforcing policy. Things got pretty hot at Sigma Alpha Epsilon, where IFC confirmed the existence of what they believed were lewd pictures of women and a poster with Bud light printed of the bottom. They were quickly removed form sight. "Out of sight, out of mind." That's IFC's motto.
Not an ounce of alcohol was found, nor was it expected. What about "late nights?" According to IFC they don't happen, especially during rush week. However, the rules for "late nights" get very vague, and the enforcement even more relaxed. IFC is on patrol until about 10 p.m., but what happens if a chapter has a party at midnight, and they put their lewd posters and alcoholic logos back on their walls? And what if they have alcohol? Who is going to stop them? IFC? No, IFC members are home studying or sleeping as they should be. There is no one to do it.
Even if IFC was awake and willing, how would they find out? Even they admit that their only avenue would be hearsay. One frat ratting on another, or a rushee who feels obligated to uphold the high standards of this university and let IFC know about a little late night drinking.
IFC's GAMMA rules are a joke. According to IFC and GAMMA, kegs and jungle juice are things of the past. In fact, any beer- and only beer is allowed at parties - goes through strict control before it reaches the thirsty lips of the Greek population. One six pack per over 21-year-old guest. The only people drinking at parties are those who brought the beer, and they got a stamp on entering the party. And to top it all off, apparently all bartenders at greek parties are denying alcohol to anyone who appears drunk. Hallelujah! God Bless the GAMMA rules. They have single- handedly done away with the drunken debauchery that usually characterizes fraternities on this campus.
GAMMA rules insist upon police presence for parties of more than 100 people, but only two officers up to 200 people. They have to work late hours, but they get paid for their trouble, and as long as 200 fraternity and sorority members can circulate alcohol under the noses of two officers, they have nothing to worry about. The greeks have worked themselves into the legal institution of our community. They write their own rules and enforce them against each other. The greek population expects their privilege like any other upperclass element of society, and our community grants them this privilege. You can buy it, too.
