I can see some merit to the idea. One big factor in its favor is that women would have control of the guest list. A sorority could host a party and call up a fraternity and tell them “Everyone’s invited. Except Bill and Frank.”
Unfortunately, that’s not the same as having control over who actually shows up and gets in.
I’m not sure, but I thought men were not allowed in Sorority houses. I’ve never been in one and don’t know any guy who has either.
It was long, long ago, but back in my day, the house got in touch with a distributer and set up an account. Drive up to the warehouse and load kegs into the back. Don’t remember what the actual dollar figures were, but it was about the same as bars and supermarkets would pay.
I once loaded 7 kegs and many, many 1.75l of hard stuff into a 1980 Dodge Colt. Squashed the suspension FLAT! 
That was a pretty good party.
I assume it’s the same now as it was when I was in college; sorority houses were dry by national charter. We weren’t allowed to have alcohol of any kind in the house ever.
If this was the deal, no one in the fraternity would go.
As to the idea of the OP: It’s a good one. This is basically what many of the all female schools do. I went to parties at one of the Seven Sisters when I was in school and they would literally bus in college men from other schools. Ten buses pull into campus and each one parks in front of a different dorm. The men get out and head into the dorms for huge parties. It was very much a female controlled event. They weren’t sororities, but the standard sorority concepts of "sober sisters’ watching over things were definitely in place.
On the evidence, parents of college boys seem to be doing reasonably well:
You got some evidence that rich parents are different?
What, don’t you watch*** Law & Order: SVU***? Almost ALL rapes are committed by rich white jocks in fraternities!
They couldn’t show that on TV if it wasn’t true.
I dunno. Frat loyalty only goes so far. The sorority can always invite a different group of guys over so the party will go on. And when the frat sees that they’re all suffering because of one or two guys (and let’s face facts - if the sorority bans one or two individuals, there was a reason for it and the rest of the frat members know it) then an “understanding” will be reached. Frank and Bill will start getting the cold shoulder until they “voluntarily” agree to stay home while everyone else goes to the party.
I don’t think the thought process is “I’m afraid Bill is going to rape me and I don’t want to go to his house.”
It’s “I enjoy partying, hanging out with my friends, dancing and perhaps hooking up with eligible gentlemen, but I find the frat parties to be unpleasantly sexually aggressive and I’ve know too many bad things to happen. I’d like to set up my own party with a slightly different atmosphere in a space I control.”
Not strange at all. Women host parties all the time. Most groups of college age women living together will eventually throw a few parties. It baffles me that this seems to strike so many as an exotic idea. The only reason sororities don’t do this already is the alcohol bans-- which are probably a product of outdated morality.
A pretty normal format for regular house parties is for the house to provide some barebones liquor with the expectation that most guests will bring something to drink and/or share. I’ve never been to a house party that didn’t end up with more booze than anyone could drink. I’m sure this could be a viable model. It’s not like these need to be carbon copies of frat parties.
I have no doubt the dudes will come.
Serious answer: it’s not the cost of the beer and liquor, it’s the liability issue. Have wild drinking parties in the building and the sorority could be in trouble if someone who was drinking there caused a car accident or did something else stupid.
I’ve been in lots. Well, three. Men usually just can’t be in them after dark.
The problem is not the cost of alcohol. It’s the cost of insurance. The cost of liability insurance for fraternities is astronomical. At my chapter, it was more than half of the cost of dues (and we had a 16 bedroom house to pay the rent on.) Men will pay high dues to ensure they can have parties. Women - faced with the same options - won’t. Sororities could cut back on a lot of the stuff they do that fraternities largely don’t (like highly regimented and expensive recruitment processes, catering, and so on) but I don’t see it happening.
Our fraternity adopted a nationwide dry-house policy to control insurance costs. After that, we had to have all our (drinking) events at bars and such.
-RNATB, (former) fraternity risk management director. And damn proud to be a Phi!
Out of curiosity what did you advise him?
List everything under “miscellaneous office supplies”.
It depends. It my fraternity days, each of the 35 brothers in my house paid “social dues” in the amount of $450 a semester (in 2015 dollars). Amounting to around $15,000. We would typically buy a loading pallet full of beer which is 60 cases. At $15 a case, comes to a bit under $1000 a party. This would be for a typical Friday or Saturday night “registered party” in our fraternities “party room”. Think your stereotypical Animal House or Van Wilder party with a few hundred random guests in a giant mansion with 35 residents.
We would also throw “cocktail parties” with mixed drinks and hard liquor. I don’t know the cost as hard alcohol is more expensive, but the parties are smaller.
Note that because our parties were sanctioned by the college, we couldn’t charge for them. So all costs came out of our pocket. Sororities at my college were not allowed to throw parties.
In contrast, my wife’s sorority (at a neighboring college) did throw parties. But unlike our giant “spoiled rich fratboy jerk” mansions, they lived in a typical residential townhouse off campus. Their parties were smaller (dozens instead of hundreds), but they could typically charge at the door ($5). Their budget consisted of a few hundred dollars to buy a couple of kegs. Most of which they expected to make back, if not turn a profit.
I suppose the one downside of sororities throwing parties instead of fraternities is security. I don’t know how they do it now, but in my day, fraternities had to provide their own security. 35 guys can get rid of a few troublemakers fairly easily. But it’s a bit harder for a group of women. But my wife’s sorority seemed to manage ok.
That’s pretty much accurate.
There is an urban legend among Greek folk that more than X number of women occupying a house (not sure if it needs alcohol) is considered a “brothel” by local laws. Don’t know if any such law is on the books.
**Oredigger77 **- Those numbers sound pretty high. 500-1000 cases is a six pack each for 1000 to 4000 people. I have trouble believing that volume would be for a typical frat party, as opposed to some major event.
Or more likely “I find the frat parties to be too crowded and full of sweaty drunk dudes puking on each other.”
I once loaded 14 Kappa Alpha Thetas into a '88 Olds Cutlass Sierra.
Well I don’t know any one who only drinks a 6 pack at a party. Like I said this was for the frat that most of the football team belonged to and I would say the average guy was drinking 4 beers an hour so at a minimum we figured 4 six packs per person. so that drops your numbers down to 250-1000 people. There were about a hundred guys on the team and another 50 people in the house who weren’t part of the team so 200 was about the minimum for any party I went too.
That being said I wasn’t the guy writing the checks I was just loading beer so I could absolutely be wrong.
Actually, I just checked with my brother-in-law who’s currently in a frat and he said his house figures 2 cases or a 6 pack per hour per brother who’s coming plus one case per non member. For big parties, alumni or the annual debauch, they typically do what we did and fill the truck bed to the roof of the truck and net it down. So minimum party would be 100 cases with their annual bash being closer to the 1000 above.
Depends a great deal more on the on the school than the town, my friend. Harvard and Princeton, probably not. Clark Atlanta and Mercer University, yeah-absolutely. Besides, your initial post said nothing about fraternity membership, only “rich parents”.
It’s not. One variation (for schools with on-campus greek housing) is that sororities can only have on-campus houses because of that law. It’s actually because the national organizations require their chapters to build on-campus when possible.
There are 2 CASES or 48 beers per frat brother and 1 CASE or 24 beers per guest being allocated as the expected consumption during the partying? If true this is an utterly absurd level of alcohol consumption.
Are many frat/sorority people over 21 or do people turn a blind eye to underage students drinking?
Yes.