Iowa State’s InterFraternity and Panhellenic Council voted last Thursday to implement new alcohol policies at social events in an attempt to curb alcohol abuse within the greek system.

Among these new policies include banning alcohol at philanthropic events, mixers between fraternities and sororities and special events. And while these bans are commendable and socially responsible, it is the fourth aspect of these policy changes that raise questions.

This fourth implementation will limit the amount of alcohol guests can bring to greek parties to six 12-ounce cans of beer per person.

While this certainly can help prevent how much alcohol guests can bring to a party, it does not limit how much alcohol they can obtain at the party.

After all, what is to prevent the hosts of the party or friends of the hosts from going upstairs to their room and consuming alcohol there? Are they technically “at the party,”and therefore under the jurisdiction of the IFC/Panhel policy?

If so, are we to assume that any time a greek member has guests over, that “event” is to be considered a party and would have to follow IFC/Panhel policies on alcohol? Would they then be able to legislate how much alcohol a greek member could possess at any time, not just parties? Legally and realistically, is that feasible? Or reasonable?

If not, then the only people that would have to follow this policy are guests who are not familiar enough with their hosts to join them for a drink in their rooms. This would leave the hosts of the party, who should be monitoring alcohol consumption, and their “V.I.P.’s” to drink as much as they please, making the policy inconsistent and a joke.

Seems they’ve opened quite a can of worms on this area, well-intended though they may be.