As of Friday, fraternity lodge events will not have guest lists nor serve alcohol until after fall break.
In fall 2018, fraternity lodge events that served alcohol began requiring guest lists that maintained a 3-to-1 ratio of nonmember guests to active members, because of changes established by the chapters’ national organizations.
But if a lodge is not serving alcohol, the fraternity does not have to have a guest list if they do not want one, said senior Dan Mahoney, president of the Interfraternity Council.
The removal of guest lists and the non-serving of alcohol were agreed upon by all IFC chapters, Mahoney said. This policy change will last until fall break, when it is expected that the current guest list and alcohol-serving policy will go back into effect, he said.
The IFC decided to temporarily suspend the guest list and the serving of alcohol to give first-year students the opportunity to attend lodges, Mahoney said. Most first-year students have not yet had the opportunity to get to know many fraternity members who could put their name on a guest list.
“We want to make sure incoming first-year students explore the lodge scene like first-years did in the past,” Mahoney said. “It would be really hard to do that with guest lists because it would be hard to get on it without knowing anyone yet. This will let them see if lodges are something they would enjoy.”
Mahoney said he had informed the first-year class during orientation about the guest list policy and that the policy would be suspended during the first half of the semester so that first-year students could freely attend lodges.
Sophomore Olivia Podber recalled first-year students' confusion with the new lodge policies last year.
“Last year, when I was first going to lodges and I knew about the rules, there was a lot of confusion amongst my friends where they were wondering if we could even get into lodges, which resulted in a lot of people not even trying to go,” Podber said. “I think for first-years this year the open policy will allow them to be confident in going out and being a part of a big experience on campus.”
A lack of a guest list also means that upperclassmen who are not usually on guest lists can also attend.
Senior Griffin Myers said she was more likely to go to lodges again now that the guest list policy has been temporarily suspended.
“I miss lodges because they were very convenient and safe,” Myers said. “If you got tired or got a weird vibe, you could just leave and walk home.”
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Mahoney said that even if open lodges were successful, it was most likely that fraternities would choose to go back to guest lists after fall break. This is because the presence of guest lists makes lodges easier to manage since there are fewer people inside them and the members of risk teams know who exactly is there, Mahoney said.
However, Mahoney emphasized that, with or without the guest lists present, IFC is still making an effort to make lodges an inclusive environment.
“We as the IFC community would like to be as inclusive as we can while also operating within the confines of our national policies,” Mahoney said. “We’re going to do the best we can moving forward to be as inclusive as possible.”
Contact news writer Julia Raimondi at julia.raimondi@richmond.edu.
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