Rush hour

New social rules will affect rush

This year's sorority and fraternity rush will test for the first time changes made to the rules that govern the Greek System's social functions.

A year-long revision of the system's social policy led to several key changes, including what kind of parties the Greek System can host during rush, monitoring guests at parties and requiring fraternities and sororities to conduct educational programming.

"We saw that things were getting out of control and the current policies didn't cover everything," explained LSA senior Sarah Sarosi, the Panhellenic Association's vice president of social responsibilities.

MARJORIE MARSHALL/Daily University students apply for sorority rush during a mass meeting in the Michigan Union last Wednesday. Campus fraternities and sororities begin fall rush this week.

Sarosi was one of five sorority presidents and five fraternity presidents to serve on the task force that revised the Social Environment Management Policy.

Some of the most significant policy changes will be visible during fraternity and sorority rush, which begins this week. Unlike previous rushes, fraternities cannot hold parties where alcohol is served.

The Greek System made this change to prevent large uncontrolled parties where fraternity members could recruit students who had not registered for rush with the Interfraternity Council.

The task force also made rules to encourage fraternity rush activities in addition to parties.

Under the updated policy, all guests at parties must wear wristbands to identify that they are either members of the fraternity or sorority hosting a party or those invited by fraternity or sorority members.

Sarosi said each chapter will receive a limited number of wristbands for each social event to cut down on the number of guests and increase safety.

"The (wristbands) make the chapters responsible for who is there," Sarosi said.

The revamped social policy also now requires that fraternities and sororities must provide at least three non-drinking members for each event they sponsor.

One door monitor and two sober monitors will be responsible for making sure others at the party are drinking safely. Prior to the policy change, each chapter hosting an event decided whether and how to monitor its guests.

This puts "a lot more responsibility on members to monitor and give rides home," said Jon Snyder, president of Sigma Phi Epsilon.

Another significant policy change is how host houses are punished for violating the Greek System's alcohol policy. During previous years, the Social Responsibility Committee used its discretion to decide punishments. Now, chapters that violate the policy will be placed on a 15-week probation, during which time they cannot hold any social functions. Sarosi said that this will be monitored closely.

In addition to the other changes, fraternities and sororities are now required to hold educational programs about health and alcohol use.

Sarosi said she already has noticed that Greek System social functions are safer this school year because of the policy changes.

Many members have expressed concern that the changes will prevent them from having fun, although most realize that the changes are beneficial because they will improve the safety of community members, she added.

"Kinks need to be worked out, but we are dealing with them. It's working really well," Sarosi said.

09-23-99