Quick question

[decadence]

n/m

[Kevin]

Originally posted by decadence
In what would normally be recognised as a 'frat(ernity) party"
Are they only for brothers and say one guest each of the brothers at that house?
Or for all the fraternities to come to? With guests?
Via Invite only or are all greeks welcome?
How about non-greeks who aren't coming with greeks either?
Just curious, thanks.

Depends on who you ask. Under my school's current dry policy (GONE AFTER THIS SEMESTER THANK GOD) 3 or more members of an organization gathered in one place constitutes an event.

[PSUSigKap]

it depends on the event. at psu before the dry social policy came into effect socials 1 fraternity/1 sorority were from 9-11. every once in a while someone would bring a guest, but usually not. then from 11-2am the party would open up to independents and other organizations. a lot of times we have combines where us and our fraternity go to another fraternity for the party at 11. some times there are greek only parties like during homecoming, greek sing, and greek week. most of the time the after 11 parties open up to non greeks. of course there are always late nites which is where your group is invited back to a fraternity for beer and to chill or whatever after 2am.

[33girl]

Without all the legal mumbo jumbo...

A fraternity party is a party at a fraternity house. There can be people from various sororities, other fraternities, and independents there (depending on campus traditions - at some schools a DKE would never go to a Sigma Chi party, for example). There might be a guest list, but anyone can attend if they are on it. Unfortunately open parties are becoming a thing of the past.

Socials or mixers are closed, only the designated fraternity(s) and sorority(s) participating can be there or the groups could be handed rush infractions (i.e. you cannot invite a rushee to a mixer).

[aephi alum]

Originally posted by decadence
In what would normally be recognised as a 'frat(ernity) party"
Are they only for brothers and say one guest each of the brothers at that house?
Or for all the fraternities to come to? With guests?
Via Invite only or are all greeks welcome?
How about non-greeks who aren't coming with greeks either?
Just curious, thanks.

Depends on the type of party.

Socials/mixers are typically open only to members of the fraternity and members of one sorority. Often, these are dry because of the sororities' no-alcohol policies. Sometimes a mixer will precede a party, in which case all the sorority members are invited to the party.

Fraternities can have small invite-only parties where each brother can invite 1-2 guests - or they can have larger invite-only parties where you have to be on the guest list to get in, but whole fraternities and sororities are invited as well as individuals.

Or, fraternities can hold open parties. Like 33girl said, these are becoming a thing of the past for risk-management reasons. You generally had to produce a college ID to get in, but that was it. These parties were advertised around campus and sometimes at neighboring colleges.

And there were always the after-parties

Back in the day, you could generally crash an invite-only party if you were female...

[gphiangel624]

Originally posted by 33girl
Without all the legal mumbo jumbo...

A fraternity party is a party at a fraternity house. There can be people from various sororities, other fraternities, and independents there (depending on campus traditions - at some schools a DKE would never go to a Sigma Chi party, for example). There might be a guest list, but anyone can attend if they are on it. Unfortunately open parties are becoming a thing of the past.

Although I agree that it is unfortunate that open parties are becoming a thing of the past, there are good reasons why. Think of all the risk management problems a chapter can have when there are unknown attendees... many fraternities get busted for giving alcohol to minors, drugs, weapons/fighting, and sexual harassment issues (esp. with guys drugging girls' drinks and taking advantage of them now). But a lot of the time, it may not have been a member of that fraternity to blame, but they get the rough end of the deal because they were in charge of the party. Granted, those are the risks a chapter takes when throwing a party, but why not be a little more careful when selecting who may come in to the party and who cannot?

At my campus, a lot of the fraternities have been regulating their parties tremendously. There have been too many out of hand situations lately and although it is the fraternity's responsibility to take care and responsibility for what happens at their parties, people are still sick... they'll bring a knife or a gun, or drug some girl's (or guy's) drink, and then the chapter gets blamed. Guest lists are SOOOO helpful now because it's easier to monitor who and what comes into your party. Yeah, I wish there were more open parties now, too... but i feel a hell of a lot safer when it's closed.

[33girl]

I understand the reasons to have a guest list or closed parties...the reason I say "unfortunately" is because I think that's one more thing that makes people say Greeks are elitist and exclude people. They aren't looking at the legal reasons, of course.

[gphiangel624]

That's very true... people are very close-minded when it comes to Greeks, and tend to think of us as elitist. Personally, I don't think any party I've ever been to would have been fun if some of the random people that show up weren't there. Otherwise, it's just a bunch of sorority girls, the unaffiliated girlfriends of the fraternity members throwing the party, of course the guys throwing the party, and maybe, if you're lucky, some of their unaffiliated friends (who are hopefully single and good-looking... ) It's just more fun with the random people... and it's a good rush tool for the guys sometimes, too.

[precious25]

At my school every party has a list. Each member of the hosting fraternity can put people on it, but generally houses have a rule that if you want to put a guy on the list, you have to put 2 girls on also. so GDIs can be there, but the goal is always to have more girls than guys. A few parties are 'closed' meaning only members of the participating fraternity and sorority may be there, but for the rest they pretty much all have lists.