Greek organizations on campus are cracking down on who can enter social events, aiming to keep the list of attendees to members of Greek life, female students and invited friends.
The goal of the restrictions is to create a safe atmosphere for students to have fun, without having to worry about any altercations or liabilities that may cause issues.
The North American Interfraternity Conference, which oversees each campuses’ Interfraternity Council, created a list of best practices and operating procedures for social events. According to WCU IFC president Ryan Williamson, this list was how WCU’s Greek organizations created their new restrictions.
“That includes closed guest lists, checking IDs at doors, making sure that everybody that we’re letting in we can vouch for,” Williamson said.
Each fraternity can use its own judgement as far as social event attendance rules. Lambda Chi Alpha is one fraternity that intends to keep track of who is allowed to enter social events.
“Basically, only Greek males are allowed. Women are welcome because we never had any issues with women, and then each brother would invite five people,” said Lambda Chi Alpha brother Simon Schrift. “I’ve heard it happen differently with different frats. I’ve heard with some frats each brother gets five or 10 buddies each to invite.”
Another strategy fraternities are using to keep track of social event attendees is to keep lists on apps such as DoorList and WYA. An invite link is shared with friends of brothers and on social media. The idea is that anyone can request to join a list, then it is up to the fraternity whether or not to accept each student. The apps help brothers better keep track of who is at the social events and lower safety risks.
Another reason for concern for Greek life and attendees alike is needle spiking, a new roofie technique.
The technique likely originated in the United Kingdom, in settings such as bars and nightclubs. The extent of its spread is unclear.
According to Oxford University Hospitals, “Needle spiking is where someone injects a person with a substance using a hypodermic needle. Whilst drink spiking has existed for many years, needle spiking appears to be a relatively new phenomenon, which started to attract press coverage in 2021.”
One attendee, who asked to remain anonymous, was at a fraternity social event with her friends when she believes she was needle spiked.
She said she did not drink much and stopped drinking early in the night.
“I walked back in the party, and we were just dancing. It was just me
and my friend, and it was shoulder to shoulder, very crowded. We’re dancing, having a great time. All of a sudden, I just started to feel really, really sick. And not at any point during this time did I ever feel a prick in my arm,” she said.
As the night went on, she lost consciousness. The next morning, she woke up and noticed a bruise.
“One of my friends on Facebook reposted this post from the UK talking about needle spiking,” she said. “And so, I looked into it, and at that point, I started looking at my bruise, and it was the same exact picture.”
The victim hopes the stricter restrictions at Greek socials will prevent needle spiking from spreading around Western Carolina University.
“We are trying to ensure that the people who are attending our parties are people who we’re comfortable having in our parties and not just having an open-door policy,” Williamson said.
