The USC campus is abuzz after the recent tailgating and social policy changes that were released by Sorority Council on Tuesday.
One student says that she understands the motivation behind SoCo’s decision, but doesn’t believe that controlling the decisions of sorority members is the most efficient solution: “I think it is entirely admirable and respectable that Sorority Council recognized the issue within our community and worked hard to create this plan that hopefully serves as the solution to the problems. However, I do not see the plan being as effective as it is hoped it be.”
In fact, there was such a huge negative response to the original set of policy changes that SoCo released another statement, along with a revised set of policies that will allow sorority members to attend fraternity tailgates this weekend—with a few catches. The new policies for this Saturday are as follows:
- No liquor, beer, or wine shall be provided by any fraternity chapter of any representative thereof at any fraternity chapter tailgate this weekend.
- Those of the legal drinking age shall bring no more than 6 beers (for personal consumption) into the fraternity tailgate lots this weekend.
- One sober monitor for every 30 chapter members shall be submitted as part of the event registration process. These monitors are not to be exclusively new members.
- Fraternity Council has agreed to provide 15 cases of bottles water to each recognized fraternity at no cost.
- Each fraternity chapter shall agree to provide sufficient food for all those present at their individual tailgate location.
- Each fraternity chapter must, to the best of their ability, submit a complete and accurate guest list as apart of the registration process.
- Each fraternity chapter president shall confirm in writing his chapter’s commitment to fulfill these requirements.
This doesn’t mean that every tailgate will be open to sorority members. The fraternities who are given the green light must meet all of these requirements before the game. The question is how likely they are to meet these conditions in time.
“In line with these changes, and after working with Fraternity Council, we have come to an agreement that the women of our community are free to attend any organizational events (inclusive of tailgates) that will be approved via a registration process adhering to all of the guidelines we have presented. This list of approved events (inclusive of tailgates) will be released Friday afternoon.”
In addition, in the Sorority Council’s released statement regarding the original changes, they stated that the original policies were presented to chapters in an effort “to ensure that we are doing everything we can to support our chapters and provide them with the resources they need to avoid these high risk behaviors.”
Moreover, they clarified that the chapter announcements sent out at the beginning of the week were only a proposal, and that Sorority Council alone did not mandate the policies.
“It was presented to the chapters for their feedback and opinions,” SoCo said in a statement. “Every chapter has a vote and there must be a 2/3 majority for this proposal to pass. The presidents and delegates have supported this movement and as a result presented this proposal to their chapters.”
In our previous article detailing what these new policies were, we begged the question of whether or not the University and these Greek life organizations even have the right to tell sorority women what they can and cannot do in their spare time. After a huge response from our readers, who wondering the same thing, we decided to find out just how much power these organizations have. So, we called local attorneys and asked their expertise on the subject.
We asked famed former USC media law professor and attorney, Jay Bender, for clarification on whether or not Sorority Council really had the capacity to ban tailgating this weekend. He told us that “If Sorority Council is not acting as a government entity, there is no Constitutional problem. On the same token, the Sorority Council probably lacks the authority to tell these students what to do. I can’t see how they would be able to enforce this ban.”
Translation: SoCo is a private organization, so they can create their own rules; however, it’s pretty difficult for SoCo to enforce the total fraternity tailgate ban.
Their latest revision, which allows approved tailgates, prevents this legal issue from coming to light, but we also decided to look into the new list of requirements, particularly the ones regarding a limitation on the amount of alcohol consumed by 21-year-old students.
USC is a wet campus, meaning that alcohol is not banned from campus, but there are restrictions on it. However, once you dig deep into the many restrictions, which include prohibiting public intoxication, requiring organizations to fill out an “Alcohol Event Registration” and prohibiting student conduct violations while under the influence, you will find a small clause. Specifically, section D, clause G of the Alcohol Policy and Guidelines for the University Community that says: “These rules (all the previous restrictions to on-campus alcohol consumption) are minimum standards. Student organizations and groups are free to adopt standards that go beyond the minimum requirements of this policy and are encouraged to do so.”
Short and sweet? That Student Code of Conduct you follow means Sorority and Fraternity Council is allowed enforce these new limitations on alcohol at tailgates. So if you’re in a sorority and want to tailgate with the fraternities this weekend, cross your fingers, because it’s on the boys to be the deciding factor.