Students who reside on Eagle Row in fraternity and sorority housing will see more expansive and consistent policies regarding walkthroughs and registered parties starting this semester, according to Office of Sorority and Fraternity Life (OSFL) Director Megan Janasiewicz.
As reported in a Feb. 6 article in the Wheel, House Directors, Emory graduate students who oversee the daily operations of the houses, have conducted walkthroughs – weekend checks of the common areas of each house and sorority lodge on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. – to ensure “resident comfort and safety” and to guard against alcohol abuse and hazing, according to Jeff Tate, assistant director of housing operations.
Beginning this fall, the walkthroughs will occur every night of the week instead of just the weekends, according to Janasiewicz.
“The purpose of the walkthrough is to ensure that there is an adult presence in each house even if the House Director is out of town,” Janasiewicz said. “It didn’t make sense for us to leave off the weeknights because House Directors often travel for internships, interviews, conferences and other reasons.”
Janasiewicz added that nothing has changed regarding the expectations of the walkthroughs, just the frequency.
The change in policy has some fraternity members unhappy.
Fourteen different IFC fraternity members declined to comment on the record, many of whom cited fear of putting their organizations under unnecessary higher scrutiny.
In the Feb. 6 Wheel article outlining the original walkthrough policy, an IFC chapter president, who requested anonymity to protect the identity of his chapter, said that “the walkthroughs do a very effective job of making us feel uncomfortable.”
“I feel that the policy does nothing to address students pregaming in their rooms,” he said.
He added that with the walkthroughs occurring, there is a perceived shift toward drinking moving “underground” or off campus, essentially eliminating oversight and creating a safety issue.
The other major change to weekends on the row is the implementation of the new EmoryCard reader policy for all students during registered parties.
According to Janasiewicz, all Greek organizations are now required to use a card reader system to record every person in attendance as well as verify the age for students 21 and older.
According to Janasiewicz, the old method was different from fraternity to sorority and was difficult to oversee.
Several national organizations offices of on-campus fraternities and sororities require a guest list for registered parties, so implementing the EmoryCard reader process is a way to satisfy that requirement in a way that made sense, according to Janasiewicz.
“Each fraternity has their own login code and reader for their parties,” Janasiewicz said. “This way we can operate in a way that is better, more accurate and fits our community.”
Just in case you forget your EmoryCard on the way to a registered party, Janasiewicz added, there is the capability of entering in your student ID number to bring up your information.
–By Stephen Fowler
Stephen Fowler 16C is the political reporter at Georgia Public Broadcasting, the statewide NPR affiliate in Georgia. He graduated from Emory with a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies and covered the central administration and Greek Life for the Wheel before serving as assistant news editor, Emory Life editor and the Executive Digital Editor from 2015-16.
