Alcohol-Free IFC?

Well, not exactly.

All Penn State fraternity recruitment events this semester will be alcohol-free, the Interfraternity Council announced Sunday. The plans are to continue in Fall 2010, but with some tweaks.

Once more, the wrong lesson is being taught; a new class of members of greek life are learning that alcohol is evil and dangerous…until you become a brother.

The new policy has its foundation set in the idea of a ‘values-based’ recruitment, IFC President Max Wendkos told The Collegian. Besides looking out for the safety of recruits, the policy is also to ‘provide for our fraternities a recruitment of students that would reflect the values that our organizations were founded upon.’

If this policy is enforced — and Wendkos makes it clear that he intends for that to be the case — then recruits will get to see each fraternity, fraternity member and the values they represent. They will learn the history and tradition of each fraternity. They will embrace one group and hope the feeling is mutual. They will be offered the chance to join the ranks of ‘brother,’ and recruitment will end.

Then what? 

The end of recruitment will be treated the way 21st birthdays are in State College: dangerously, carelessly and immediately. The values, history and tradition might still exist, but they’ll be drowning.

That’s not to say this is all reality, yet it is the impression a policy like this gives.

This writer endorses neither underage drinking nor dangerous drinking, but for the fraternities to pretend that neither exists behind the guest list is nothing more than sweeping it under the rug. 

Say Johnny Alpha and Billy Beta are both being recruited by Penn State fraternities. Billy wants a place to drink for free and underage, but this new policy tells him that greek life isn’t a drinking society. He quits, which is perfectly in line with the ‘values-based’ foundation for the policy.

Johnny, on the other hand, is fascinated by the stories of a fraternity’s founders and their passion for the literary society they created. He loves the traditions and rituals, and he joins. Then recruitment ends and the parties begin. This wasn’t what Johnny had expected, and now he and his brothers don’t see eye-to-eye on how to uphold the fraternity’s values he was taught.

The perfect fraternity candidate will be somewhere in between, the policy appears to say. The perfect Kevin Kappa will be interested in the major parties thrown by fraternities but has the self-control to wait and learn about the fraternities first. He’ll be interested in the traditions and values, and he’ll take it upon himself to make sure the fraternity upholds both during his time there. 

Greek life can provide a true brotherhood, but only if Kevin Kappa’s perspective on the new policy is shared by all students rushing fraternities. 

It will be up to this new class of members to begin the real change from the inside: Tone down the parties, keep everybody safe, and realize that making alcohol a taboo subject only makes it more appealing to 18-year-old males. 

By the time the Kevin Kappas are the ones in charge of recruitment, perhaps each fraternity will have a values-based system of its own that doesn’t require the strong arm of the IFC coming down on it.

Then, perhaps, Kevin Kappa can get rid of this policy.