Dry mixers/socials/swaps (a longish rant)

[33girl]

One of the reasons given by the NPC for the alkie-free mixer thing is to give the alcohol-free fraternities a "level playing field."

In my opinion, that's a bunch of crap.

As I mentioned on here before, DZ at my school had their pledges dress up in nice clothes/pin attire for their whole pledge period. They were the only ones who did this. They didn't come to Panhel and say to the other orgs "please make your pledges dress up, so we can have a level playing field." That was their decision, it worked well for them, and they didn't need anyone to validate it.

If Phi Delt (sorry, I am going to pick on them) is so positive that going dry is the best thing since sliced bread, will improve the quality of their brothers, etc., why did they feel the need to go to NPC and ask for their help validating a fraternity policy? It sounds to me like they are talking out of both sides of their mouth - on one hand, alcohol free is the solution from on high, but on the other hand, they want NPC to basically "legislate" its members into socializing with them. That doesn't sound to me like they have much faith in the ability of their brothers to socialize or attract sorority members to their brothers successfully without alcohol. To ask NPC to have its members respect and follow their house's alcohol policy, yes. To ask them to completely overhaul the entire social structure, no.

I also think it's degrading to just assume right away that sororities would want nothing to do with alcohol free fraternities - that makes us sound like a bunch of lushes. Shadokat spoke on here of how mixers every week contributed to sister burnout - I think an alcohol free event every so often would be a nice change. It's when you go from all to none that people get irritated.

My point of this rambling post? Believe in your policy (whether it be alcohol, getting rid of pledging, whatever), and in the strength of your brothers to succeed with that policy, or no one else will.