Sororities should be allowed to drink

By: Ebony Munday – Junior – Communication

Fraternity parties with music, socializing and near-unlimited alcohol are commonly hosted on many university campuses. (There is minimal supervision of alcohol distribution in a frat house, which can pose many dangers to female students who come to join the fun.)

I have never experienced a party at a sorority house where members were allowed to serve alcohol, but when attending a fraternity party, alcohol is readily available to me as needed. I don’t feel that prohibiting alcohol in a house full of women will be of any use when one could walk right down the street to a nearby fraternity party and fill up her cup as many times as she wants. Sorority members should have the same trust and regulations as the men in fraternities, whose parties often get out of hand because of limited supervision.

Let me be clear: I don’t believe that all fraternity parties are chaotic or unsafe for young women. But, I believe that sororities should be allowed to monitor their own distribution of alcohol just as fraternities have the freedom to do so. Though I myself do not drink, I think it’s important for all students at the University of Dayton to have equal opportunities in all aspects of education and even leisure time in hosting these parties for the student body.

In my opinion, women are more likely to look out for one another as far as supervising distribution of alcoholic beverages and possibly keeping some members of the sorority house sober to monitor activity. Supervision over any party that serves alcohol is important to maintaining social order and diminishing many incidents of rape or attacks on vulnerable, intoxicated women.

I believe students at UD look out for one another based on a few parties I have attended in the past few years, whether that means checking ID’s before handing out a drink or a friend cutting another off from access to alcohol before they get too drunk. But with a more monitored environment some of the worry that women might have when attending a crowded fraternity party could cease because they are near other women who may be observing the scene more closely than men in a fraternity house.

Giving sorority members access to alcohol in their own homes would be beneficial to our own neighborhood because women would gain the control men have to create  a safe and fun environment for all students. Students are expected to have equal opportunity based on our learning environment: it’s fair that the same rules be applied to sororities, and that they be viewed as reliable as fraternity members when ensuring public safety.