The College decided last week to reduce the number of permissible kegs at all Greek parties by one-third following a recommendation issued by the Hanover Fire Department.
Fire Chief Roger Bradley said a fire safety warning letter was issued due to concerns about overcrowding at parties hosted by fraternities, sororities and co-ed houses.
Until the change, the formula had permitted alcohol purchase for one-and-a-half times the maximum fire capacity of the house hosting the party.
The fire department recommended the Office of Residential Life "cease issuing permits" based on the existing formula and to instead use exactly the maximum capacity in calculating the formula.
Until the fire department meets with ORL, the alcohol policy will continue to be calculated based on the maximum capacity of a Greek house instead of one-and-a-half times the capacity.
Besides the maximum fire code capacity of the house, the formula also takes into account the duration of the party and the percentage of students on campus of drinking age.
The formula assumes each student over the age of 21 will drink one 12-ounce beer an hour. Each keg is estimated to contain 168 beers and for each keg, ORL issues a keg tag.
By limiting the number of kegs, the fire department believes overcrowding will be reduced. But Greek house leaders say overcrowding is unrelated to the number of kegs permitted at social functions.
In response, ORL ordered Chi Heorot fraternity and Kappa Kappa Kappa fraternity -- two houses which held alcohol-permitted social events last weekend -- to reduce the number of kegs at their parties. Keg tags based on the old formula had already been issued so ORL asked the two houses to return some of the tags.Bradley said the department believes houses may be misusing the old alcohol policy formula and utilizing it as a rationale to allow additional students into parties beyond houses' fire capacity.
Coed Fraternity Sorority Council President Chris Atwood '98 said he will meet with the fire department to discuss the alcohol policy "and see if this kind of directive is the way the fire department should deal with what they consider excessive loading of fraternity houses."
"The assumption this directive makes is that limiting the amount of alcohol will solve overcrowding issues," Atwood added. "I don't believe that is true."
Heorot President Shane Ness '98 said a large factor leading to overcrowding recently was the large number of houses unable to throw parties because they were under CFS social restrictions.
"Last week I think we were the only fraternity that had a party on Saturday night," he said. "I don't think cutting the amount of beer ... is the answer."
Ness said Heorot members did not limit the number of students entering the house based on the number of kegs purchased.
"It's tough to judge if we are over the fire capacity or not but when it gets really crowded, we stop letting people in," he said.
Ness said his house was very careful about not exceeding fire capacity because of an "incredible fine" and because police were watching Heorot on Saturday night.
Bradley said the fire department has been responding to automatic fire alarms at Greek houses on a regular basis and "on certain occasions" have seen overcrowding problems during parties.
"Our goal is to make fraternities a safe place and to avert any tragedies," Bradley said. "We will have further discussions with ORL to resolve the situation as we see it."
Fire Captain Jon Whitcomb said the fire department initially became aware of the "1.5 times capacity" rule after a fire alarm went off at a fraternity the Thursday before Winter Carnival.
Whitcomb was on duty the night of the "incident" and said upon arrival he noticed " a significant amount of people" waiting outside the fraternity.
"This was not the first time," he said. "Parties are occasionally overcrowded."
Whitcomb said he counted the number of people waiting outside to try and match the number with the house's maximum allowable capacity.
"It didn't even come close," he said. "I counted 500 people outside. The maximum capacity is far less."
Whitcomb said he looked into the overcrowding situation and discovered the College's "1.5 times capacity" alcohol policy formula.
Tri-Kap Social Chair Hai Gi Li '99 said he thinks "the school is just following through with their cracking down on alcohol."
