The Interfraternity Council will share a final draft of a proposal to grant fraternities on campus wet status, to members of the Committee on Alcohol and Other Drugs Thursday.
With a thumbs up from committee leaders, IFC president Michael Beadle said he thinks the final draft, scheduled to reach Vice President of Student Affairs William Banis’ desk by the end of this quarter, will get pushed through to the implementation stages.
The proposal, which Beadle first formally drafted last January when he took over as IFC president, would represent an overhaul in the way fraternities handle alcohol policy in their on-campus houses by allowing chapters to apply for wet status, to host BYOB events and parties with outside vendors, for members 21 and older, according to Beadle.
“We’ve been thinking about what we wanted to do with the social culture at NU for a couple of years now,” he said. “On IFC, it’s been passed down from president to president. We’ve finally come up with a proposal to shift it.”
The two committee co-chairs Director of Fraternity and Sorority Life Dominic Greene and Director of Health Promotion and Wellness Lisa Currie will review the proposal Thursday, Beadle said. Greene declined comment, and Currie could not be reached.
The proposal breaks down alcohol policy changes into two phases. Phase one is gaining dorm status for fraternities, Beadle said. Students living in University housing who are of legal drinking age are allowed to drink in their dorms. This is not the case in fraternity houses on campus, something which Beadle hopes the proposal will change, with one caveat: The new policy will not allow for hard liquor consumption in fraternity houses.
“We’re trying to get rid of shots,” he said, “which is quite the status quo here. So that’s a big change.”
Phase two, which Beadle said IFC is hoping to get approved at the same time, would allow fraternities to host in-house BYOB events or contract third party vendors to set up a bar in their house for a party. In both cases, according to Beadle, guests would be carded and those of age would be given wristbands.
If Banis approves the new policy, fraternities who meet the requisite standards – a quarterly 3.2 GPA and two quarters free of disciplinary action, among others – will be able to apply for wet status. All chapter members will also be required to receive Red Watch Band Training, Men Against Rape and Sexual Assault training, and Alcohol and Social Awareness training.
Beadle said IFC brought a first draft of the proposal to Banis last spring.
“The changes from last spring are that the proposal is much more specific,” Beadle said. “How we are going to implement it? What is it going to look like? What are judicial consequences going to be? How are we going to monitor this?”
“We don’t pretend like we can stop drinking. But we want it to be safe, and these new policies will allow us to monitor it better.”
-IFC president Michael Beadle
With the revisions in place, Beadle said he is confident at least phase one of the proposal – now in its third draft of about 50 pages – will receive University approval.
Though Beadle’s own fraternity Phi Delta Theta has a national policy that all houses must be dry, he said working on this was worthwhile because of its importance for the fraternity community at NU.
“Right now we have to take a laissez-faire approach to alcohol if we know drinking is going on in fraternity house,” Beadle said. “We don’t pretend like we can stop drinking. But we want it to be safe, and these new policies will allow us to monitor it better.”
