Equal opportunity for Greek party opportunities

Two weeks down, and many more to go this semester. While the number of weeks ahead tells us just how much academic work is left in the semester, the number of Wednesdays and weekends ahead tells many of us about the plethora of social opportunities that remain before Spring semester, particularly for Greek-affiliated students. There are theme parties galore this semester, but unbeknownst to many, National Panhellenic Conference sororities on campus find themselves left out of much of the party planning. As highlighted in a recent Chronicle opinion column, the NPC and many national chapter organizations encourage or require their sororities to maintain certain bans. For most that means dry houses and a prohibition on hosting open parties.

The intent is largely to protect members from the “risks associated with the consumption of alcoholic beverages,” a risk that we believe does not decrease as parties move away from sorority housing. National organizations also cite reducing house insurance costs and preserving the “intimate decoration” of sorority houses as rationales, neither of which is apparently a concern for most fraternities. More informally, the prevailing view working behind the scenes is that parties are traditionally hosted by fraternities and attended by sororities. While the former reasons could at least be seen as reasons for a sorority to choose not to host functions, this latter idea is old fashioned and fails to find any independent grounding. In this day and age, the picture of a prim and proper sorority submitting to that kind of social positioning should never be upheld in the name of the status quo but only to the extent that participants desire such ritual.

One sorority member at George Washington University poses the question simply, “I’ve always thought, ‘Why aren’t there sorority house parties? There are only frat parties. I would definitely feel safer at a sorority party. It’s the home-court advantage’.” There is certainly a safety dimension to the untapped value in sororities organizing parties on campus.

The status quo allows fraternities to control the Greek social scene, most importantly with open parties, and disallow sororities from hosting likely safer parties and functions where women can be relatively more at ease. While fundamentally still a party, we imagine the difference in atmosphere and character of such parties would be obvious. There is no discernible reason for some sororities to preclude themselves from hosting safer and specifically female-friendly parties, which is not to say fraternities do not also strive for the safety and comfort of guests. Every chapter’s particular group of members, male or female, and every university’s social scene is different, and all organized living groups should have the opportunity to set the terms of their social engagements.

When a sorority hosts an open party, it shows that all Greek organizations are equally privileged to engage other organizations and students socially. A more distant but important advantage of this is first-year interaction with affiliated members. While fraternity members are met in concentrated groups at their open parties, sorority members are largely met in scatterings, contributing to the uneven pressures on girls during the Spring rush process.

At the end of the day, the barriers to sororities hosting parties are antiquated and detrimental to university social scenes, and the cost and harms reduction concerns of national organizations seem feeble reasoning for such bans. While the traditions and norms some sororities choose to adopt based on their members’ preferences should be respected, imposing these bans on those who would prefer to run their own parties is simply unfair. We therefore urge a more equitable social experience for all students.