While fraternities struggle to change the stigma of fraternity drinking as their sole purpose for existence, studies are being published which indicate higher levels of drinking among fraternity members than non-fraternity members. A study published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol conducted at 78 campuses across the country found that fraternity residents consumed an average of 20.3 drinks per week compared to 7.5 drinks per week for all male students. In addition, underage drinking continues to occur within fraternities, making it even more difficult for fraternities to change their stereotypical image.

At Rensselaer, individual fraternities monitor the use of alcohol within their houses, but the Interfraternity Council maintains certain regulations regarding parties. Among these regulations, fraternities may not advertise parties by distributing fliers. This regulation helps prevent the number of non-students who try to enter parties. For health and safety reasons, parties with an attendance of twice the number of brothers require registration with the IFC. Additionally, many houses have designated drivers and some fraternities do not allow their members to drink at all while running parties.

IFC party monitors arrive some time during parties to make sure no minors are being served, check if emergency exits are easily accessible, and verify that there are no other violations of the law or IFC policy. If there is a violation, the fraternity is notified and expected to address the violation. If the violation is not fixed when the party monitor returns a second time, the party is shut down and the incident is reported to the IFC Executive Board. Depending on the seriousness of the violation, the action may range from a fine to suspension.

With all the policies in place, Jonah Brugger, vice president social, said, “We do a better job of maintaining risk at our parties than other local schools.”

The IFC looks for fraternities to have an awareness of and the ability to look for problems in order to reduce risk as much as possible. It also tries to cut the amount of binge drinking within fraternities. Regarding underage drinking, IFC President Jeff Andritz says that underage alcohol consumption occurs within fraternities and no matter what preventative measures a fraternity takes, a person will get drinks one way or another, possibly from friends that may legally obtain alcohol.

An anonymous person said that as an underage student, he obtained alcohol from a fraternity party. He believes that the proliferation of alcohol is due to society not valuing the laws associated with alcohol use. If people do not value a particular law, there is no real way to enforce it.

The IFC also mandates that fraternity members who serve drinks undergo a program called Training for Intervention Procedures by Servers. These programs are also promoted by the health center to inform the college community as a whole. Terri Kersch, a health education specialist, does not want underage and high risk drinking to continue, however she also believes that education is very important because students will use that information when they are ready. As a health education specialist, she sees alcohol as a community problem affecting all groups on campus, not just fraternities.

Kersch said, “We really can’t target groups. I think that drinking is also happening among first year students, among athletes, and females.”

The Dean of Students Office is also involved with alcohol issues on campus. DOSO maintains records of the number of judicial cases involved with alcohol, but does not keep detailed statistics as to what extent the alcohol related incidents have a correlation with fraternities. In order to enforce alcohol policies, Judicial Affairs collects information primarily through Public Safety and Residence Life. It relies heavily on the IFC to enforce regulations within fraternities.

Travis Apgar, senior judicial administrator, said, “We can only go so far … we’re not really interested in being intrusive in homes we don’t own.”

The Dean of Students Office does not know how much underage drinking occurs in fraternities other than from cases that the department oversees for judicial review. Apgar said that some fraternities manage social events more responsibly than others. He added that some fraternities are convinced that they create the entire social life at RPI, which revolves around alcohol, when some people are looking for a different kind of social life.

Apgar said, “The bottom line is that specifically for fraternities … if fraternities don’t live up to their own policies, it demonstrates that the IFC can’t handle itself.”