Two fraternities on social probation for violating new policy to end boozy parties

BY MOLLY NICHOLAS

Miami University journalism student

Miami University made headlines last winter, not for their award-winning academics or study abroad programs, but for the death of a student.

Erica Buschick, a freshman at Miami, died of alcohol poisoning on Jan. 20. Her blood alcohol concentration at the time of her death was 0.347 percent, more than 4 times the legal driving limit in Ohio. Buschick was signed up for sorority recruitment at the time of her death.

Her death prompted student Greek leaders to institute a no-hard liquor policy at fraternity and sorority parties. The policy officially started this academic year.

Two fraternities on probation for breaking policy

Miami University's Interfraternity Council placed two fraternities on social probation this semester for breaking the new social policy, a fraternity official said.

Sigma Pi was put on probation until Halloween. After Halloween, it will be on deferred social probation until Nov. 11. Sigma Pi broke policy with a “handles and handcuffs” party. According to Interfraternity Council Vice President Jackson Bandy, their executive members pushed for a “champagne and shackles” party, but some people still brought handles of hard liquor. Handles is a slang term referring to large bottles of hard liquor.

Delta Sigma Phi was put on social probation last month for serving Jello shots at a party. They were made with Malibu Rum, which is not permitted under the new policy, according to Bandy. Delta Sigma Phi was put on social probation for a month.

“Even though both situations were in violation of the policy, they violated it from different angles and both situations were handled accordingly, rather than a set sanction,” Bandy said. “The Jello shots were actually worse because the fraternity was serving them, whereas members bringing handles to a party is a different situation.”

The push for a new policy

Miami University President Gregory Crawford held a meeting Dec. of 2016 before winter break at his house as a way to curb drinking associated with recruitment, according to Jordan Nuckolls. This was the first time the new Greek presidents met with the Crawford.

Nuckolls, a senior at Miami and president of Alpha Chi Omega, was nervous to start her first semester as a leader of her sorority when she returned from winter break.

“As presidents, we felt a ton of pressure from not only the Cliff [Alexander Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life] office, but administration, because President Crawford and his wife talked to us personally at their house about how we were responsible for what went on the rest of the semester,” Nuckolls said.

The first part of the initiative was to avoid “Blackout Monday” through programming and sisterhood events put on by the Panhellenic Association. Panhellenic wanted to avoid the notoriously “high-risk” night typically involving binge-drinking, so women were not permitted to go out until that Thursday. That pushed Blackout Monday to Thursday, according to Nuckolls, which did not solve the problem.

“I had no instances of hospitalizations, but over 20 Panhellenic women were sent to the hospital that night,” Nuckolls said.

These women were hospitalized for alcohol-related incidents on that evening, according to Nuckolls.

Another part of the initiative was created to help with hazing during men’s recruitment. In the past women have taken part in the hazing by coming to the fraternity parties and taking part in forcing men to drink, according to Nuckolls. So, every sorority member signed a contract saying they would not partake in men’s recruitment or hazing.

Policy trial period

Leaders wanted Green Beer Day, a day stigmatized with over consumption of alcohol, to be different for March 2017, which led to the beginning of removing hard liquor from Greek parties. No hard liquor was permitted at sorority and fraternity parties held that day.

Green Beer Day was the big push for the policy and there were only a couple minor incidents, according to Interfraternity Council President Cameron Snyders.

After the success of Green Beer Day, the policy was added to the Panhellenic and IFC Social Policy this semester.

“One of the caveats to it is it doesn’t say no hard liquor, but it says you can’t have beverages that are outside the classification of wine, beer and champagne” Snyders said.

A push for the policy was to avoid a common scene at parties where there are a bunch of bottles of hard liquor sitting on a table with random mixers.

“Everyone started seeing that hard liquor has been a part of the culture, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be,” Snyders said. “It just progresses so quickly with hard liquor, you have like one drink and sometimes you don’t even know what’s in the drink.”

Breaking the rules

Both Panhellenic and IFC have a strike system in place for having hard liquor at parties. If there is hard liquor found at a party the first offense is two weeks of social probation. The second offense is four weeks, and the third offense is six weeks or the rest of the semester.

Social probation prohibits the fraternity or sorority from having any registered social events.

“We weren’t really sure how to enforce it last semester, so the strikes are new this semester for enforcing the policy,” Sullivan said.

Snyders believes that sometimes there’s a degree of breaking the rule and tries to be practical about it. For example, if a fraternity has done something wrong that wasn’t completely intentional or aggressive, they move to deffered social probation.

Deffered social probation is where a fraternity can still have a social event, but they must follow the social policy to a T, according to Snyders. This way, they can see they don't have to break the policy again and continue to follow it.

Introducing this addition to the social policy was gradual. Chapters began trying this at their parties last semester, so they were able to see its effectiveness before it was a rule, according to Snyders.

“The nice thing is there wasn’t a whole lot of push back,” Snyders said. “Because people had seen it done and they realized that we can still have fun and have events that are successful without hard liquor.”

Erin Sullivan, the Vice President of Standards for the Panhellenic Association, is hoping the policy becomes a norm for the Greek community.

Measuring progress

Because the policy is so new, there isn’t much data to say whether or not it’s helping. Instead, Sullivan and Snyders have been measuring progress for the Panhellenic community through presidents and general members.

“Something I’ve been hearing a lot from general members is that they forget hard liquor was even there,” Sullivan said. “It’s not something they’re really upset about, and they don’t really think about it or notice it’s not there.”

Sullivan believes the policy has been successful for sororities so far because they have not had any incidents yet breaking the policy.

“We put the policy in place because we saw a high correlation of hard liquor with people going to the hospital,” Sullivan said. “It’s still something that we’re evaluating continually, but so far, it seems to be working out pretty well.”

Snyders has still seen measurable progress in the Greek Community with the addition of this new rule to the social policy.

Disciplinary actions for liquor law violations on the Oxford campus also went down from 421 to 400 from Dec. 2015 to Dec. 2016.

“By and large, it seems to be trending in a positive direction,” Snyders said. “Right now, we’re really sticking to what the chapter presidents have said, and they’ve all overwhelming been really supportive of it.”

Nuckolls supports the policy, but she isn’t as confident in the progress for her chapter. They’ve adhered to the rule, but she isn’t sure of its impact on drinking.

“What I have seen is more pre-gaming prior to socials with hard liquor,” Nuckolls said. “I’m noticing members are showing up really drunk and then continuing to drink the beer and wine at parties.”

Katherine Menza, 21, admits that she pregames more with hard liquor now that she knows it won’t be at socials.

“I don’t really like the beer served at parties, so now I just have to drink before I go or drink more at the bars,” Menza said.

“Personally, I just don’t think the rule is having an effect. People at this school have always done what they’re going to do,” Nuckolls said. “They’re always going to find a way around it and I can only enforce so much.”

Oxford Police on the new policy

The policy is new to the Oxford Police Department as well. Although it’s hard to categorize arrests, Police Chief John Jones says they’ve had a “normal, crazy level” of incidents this semester.

“I think for the most part it’s been a decent semester. We haven’t had any major incidents involving alcohol,” Chief Jones said. “We’ve had our normal kind of activity, underage arrests, disorderly conduct, hospitalizations, property damage.”

Although it will take some time for people to understand and take on the new policies, the police are welcoming this policy.

The Oxford police do not categorize arrests or calls based on Greek and non-Greek parties. It’s hard to distinguish one from the other because most calls are to off-campus housing. But, their general data shows an increase in underage drinking arrests for this year.

From Jan. to Oct. 1, 2017, Oxford police cited 288 people for underage drinking. During that time period in 2016, there were 168 arrests for underage drinking, according to their weekly reports.

Through Oct. 1, Oxford police have cited 105 people for underage drinking.

Jones said it's too early to tell if the policy is having impact.

“ Just because they don’t serve hard liquor at their parties, how is that being checked?" he said. "Is someone actually confirming that that’s actually occurring or are we just saying that?”

Photo 1: Sophomore sorority members live on campus in the five residence halls that make up Central Quad. --Photo by Molly Nicholas
Photo 2: Alpha Chi Omega President Jordan Nuckolls says the only way we might fix the drinking issues at Miami is to stigmatize binge drinking and make it "completely unacceptable." -- Photo by Molly Nicholas
Photo 3: IFC Vice President Jackson Bandy hopes that even if the policy doesn't stop people from drinking hard liquor, they at least think twice about the amount they're consuming. -- Photo by Molly Nicholas
Photo 4: Talawanda Road is home to many of the fraternity houses that make up Miami's Greek community. -- Photo by Molly Nicholas