Hours before the late-night festivities of Halloween weekend began on Friday, Tufts officials reintroduced a "Bring Your Own Beer" (BYOB) policy for Greek houses hosting parties.
Designed to reduce the university's liability for alcohol-related incidents, the policy has seldom been enforced at most Greek houses, and, when discussed, it has often raised concerns among students.
Dean of Student Affairs Bruce Reitman sent out an e-mail on Friday to a number of student fraternity leaders stating that the administration, in coordination with the Tufts University Police Department (TUPD), would begin to enforce national BYOB regulations on campus.
He presented fraternities with three options: adhere to chapter BYOB policies; obtain written permission from respective national fraternity offices to distribute alcohol to sober, of-age students; or disallow alcohol at parties entirely.
"It has become clear that many fraternity chapters are not following the requirements of their national fraternity offices or house corporations that require that any alcohol present at a social event run by the chapter be brought by the event guests (BYOB)," he said in the e-mail.
Though BYOB is not part of university policy, it is on the books at the national chapters of almost all of Tufts' fraternities. It is mainly intended to reduce chapter liability in the case of alcohol-related incidents involving underage students.
Reitman argued that the legal responsibility of both the university and Greek houses would have in the event of alcohol-induced student injury or death necessitated BYOB's enforcement.
"Neither you, as officers of the chapters, nor the university, have the required risk management coverage in place to allow you to prudently go ahead with managing events in a way that is not approved by your house corps and national offices," he said in the e-mail.
Reitman sent the e-mail out midday on Friday, leaving fraternities with little time to contact their national headquarters to obtain permission to host a non-BYOB event.
Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senator Bruce Ratain, a member of the student and administrator-led Alcohol Task Force and an Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) brother, felt the BYOB enforcement was sudden and called the move unnecessarily unilateral on Reitman's part.
"While I understand the liability issue that this new enforcement policy is predicated upon, I do think that it was unfortunate, and led to a great deal of confusion," said Ratain, a junior. "This change was implemented a day before Halloween weekend, when most fraternities were scheduled to have large parties, and without first consulting and collaborating with the Senate and Alcohol Task Force."
Several fraternity presidents said they made efforts to follow BYOB over the weekend.
President of Delta Upsilon (DU) Alex Ross, a junior, said that the fraternity had a guest list and enforced a system to distinguish between underage students and those over 21.
"At the door we were checking IDs," he said. "Anyone over 21 got an orange wristband. If you were under 21 you also had to sign a sheet as you came in that you couldn't drink DU's alcohol."
AEPi had a guest list as well, but enforced BYOB policy with an alternative method. "We had [of-age students] bring alcohol ahead of time and that was re-distributed at the party," said President of AEPi Igor Moliver, a senior.
Student accounts, however, show discrepancies between proposed party regulations and actual enforcement within frats.
"To be honest, I had no idea there was a new policy in place," said a sophomore who asked to remain anonymous so as not to be connected with incriminating fraternities. "I went to AEPi, 123 [Theta Delta Chi] and DU. We went to the frats as usual and drank the same as always."
Another student who also asked to remain anonymous had a similar experience at AEPi.
"I just went up to the bar like usual and they just handed me drinks like they always do," he said.
When asked to comment on these discrepancies, Reitman said that the Greek houses were effective in enforcing the policy given the circumstances.
"I was told that the chapters' efforts to accomplish the BYOB requirements of their nationals were good faith efforts, given the short notice they had to put these systems into place," he told the Daily in an e-mail.
Reitman also informed fraternity presidents that TUPD would be checking on all Greek functions over the weekend and would shut down those not in compliance with the BYOB policy.
Though not all-inclusive, this commitment was carried through for the most part by TUPD.
"I did visit all the frats," TUPD Capt. Mark Keith said. "I didn't go into all of them but I did go into a couple of them."
Keith said that at the fraternities he visited, he saw brothers checking student IDs and making a mark on the hands of students who were of-age.
But according to at least one student, this did not happen. "I didn't even get an X on my hand like I usually do because I'm under 21," said the student, who also requested anonymity because of the situation's sensitivity.
Keith said that while fraternities took steps toward enforcing BYOB, comprehensive implementation would take time.
"The actual policy and procedures as to how the BYOB can best be carried out need to be written down, clarified, so that everyone is on the same page," he said. "I think there is some room for improvement there."
The push for enforcement has raised concern within the student body about the policy's possible detrimental effects.
"Frat parties keep students on campus where it's easier for the police to give students help if they need it. I don't really know how they envision this policy in the long term but if this policy has the effect of shutting down frat parties, I think it'll make drinking on campus less safe," Moliver said.
Ratain agreed. "To me, strict enforcement of BYOB or 21-and-older drinking policies at fraternity houses will not contribute to making students safer, and I worry that if anything, it will simply push drinking to less regulated and less centralized off-campus parties and pre-games," he said.
Despite spearheading the initiative, Reitman too has displayed a personal distaste for BYOB policy.
"Requiring BYOB is certainly not the most effective way to approach responsible hosting or risk management for the chapters," he told the Daily. "I don't think BYOB is good for the fraternities or for Tufts."
He said the policy was simply used to rid national Greek chapters of liability.
"It is a way for national offices to try to wash their hands of any responsibility and leave the fraternity officers on their own if something happens," Reitman said.
Still, it appears the policy will continue to be enforced until a viable alternative which can protect both the university and campus chapters from liability is available.
"It is my hope that the fraternity national offices and the house corporations will work [with] the chapter officers to provide more flexibility in their requirements for social hosting," Reitman said.
DU is working to get an insurance policy that would cover all social events, including non-BYOB parties, according to Ross. Moliver said AEPi was considering a more-expansive insurance policy as well.
