Fraternity Row
Old Town College Park resident Kathy Bryant didn’t expect the excessive noise of the off-campus party scene. She also didn’t plan for 2:30 a.m. visitors begging to use her bathroom.
“[In August], I heard pounding on the door, and this girl was drunk out of her mind. … She just kept wanting to get in my house, and I didn’t feel comfortable; I didn’t know her,” said Bryant, who is the president of the Old Town Civic Association. “I don’t think someone should have been pounding on the door at 2:30 in the morning.”
Although personal house visits aren’t common, general noise disturbances seem impossible to escape, and they aggravate Old Town residents any night of the week, sometimes occurring as late as 4 a.m.
But Ryan Belcher, director of shared governance for the Student Government Association, hopes to ease tensions between students and residents by encouraging more parties registered with the university through the Interfraternity Council at Greek life chapter houses.
“When parties are on the Row, the noise is taken off College Park, and it’s safer given the mechanisms for social event monitoring,” said Belcher, a senior environmental science and policy and government and politics major. “They’re also a lot of fun. … You’re able to have social events in the chapter houses, which is your second home if you’re in Greek life.”
Bryant said residents often have no choice but to call law enforcement to the scene when there’s excessive noise. According to a city noise data report, police and code enforcement received 521 noise complaints in the city of College Park in 2013, with August and September as the busiest months, totaling 67 and 117 calls, respectively.
And the Old Town neighborhood, which houses most of Greek life’s off-campus “satellite” houses, is specifically affected by noise disturbances, said Bob Ryan, the city’s director of public services.
“It’s seasonal — obviously, the nicer the weather, the nicer it is to have an outdoor party, and that’s where a lot of the complaints originate from. Large house parties and the associated crowds of people coming and going,” Ryan said.
Belcher said chapters hold about one registered party per semester. Strict rules come with holding a registered party, he said, including having an invitation list, having a routine party check by the social event monitoring committee and distributing wristbands or marking underage attendees’ hands with black X’s, according to the social event monitoring policy.
The parties also have to end by 2 a.m., and no beverages exceeding 15 percent alcohol content are permitted, according to the policy.
The punishment for breaking any of the rules is an eight- to 12-week social moratorium, which the policy defines as “no in-house or out-of-house social events, including dated parties, formals or any other chapter-organized social function with alcohol.”
“When you are dealing with a registered party right now, you have a higher probability of getting in trouble than with an off-campus party, in addition to the fact that it’s more restricted and you have to plan it in advance,” said Keith Brassil, the SGA Greek residential representative and a senior economics major. “That’s why they’re not more popular.”
Belcher said encouraging Greek life to throw more registered parties would warrant a change to the current policy. This would mean loosening the punishments, such as more forgiving penalties for first-time infractions and reducing chapter liabilities by getting party guests to sign testimonies indicating they are responsible for themselves.
The Greek community has expressed support for policy changes to make registered parties more enjoyable, Belcher said. Residents and city officials also expressed interest in actions to increase registered parties at the Neighborhood Quality of Life Committee meeting Nov. 6, he said.
Belcher said his next steps include speaking with the Panhellenic Association, IFC and collaborating with the City Council and civic associations. They also will speak to the Department of Fraternity and Sorority Life to see whether policy changes can be implemented or have to go through the University Senate.
Brassil said the push for more registered parties is feasible and can be vital to amending relations between students and long-term residents.
“As far as Greek life goes, we’ve had huge success in tailgating scenes on campus, so if we could make [registered parties] more popular, we could also have that same success creating a safer environment for students to have fun in,” Brassil said. “It would also really improve our relationship with the local city of College Park, which has just been really suffering recently. They’re really fed up with the noise.”
