Overwhelmed by liability issues, trashed houses and increased administrative scrutiny, Greek houses may soon be closing most of their parties to all but a select few.
The Coed Fraternity Sorority Council has been having an "ongoing discussion this term" over the merits of more closed parties, CFSC President Chris Atwood '98 said.
But closed parties will not be mandated by the CFSC and will be "completely up to the host," he said.
Atwood said the main reasons for considering closed parties is "a lack of respect shown to members of houses and their physical plants like broken windows and people climbing in windows."
Kappa Delta Epsilon President Kate Frias '98 said the amount of damage done to some CFS houses during parties is "disrespectful."
"With open parties there does tend to be a lot more damage," she said. "I think it's really unfortunate that a lot of Dartmouth campus feels it's their right to be in a house [during a party] when it's ... [students'] privilege."
And others besides members of Greek houses may be interested in closed parties -- according to Student Assembly President Jon Heavey '97, the question of closed parties was raised two weeks ago during a student meeting with the Board of Trustees.
"Personally, I have been very thankful for open parties but I could recognize why presidents would want parties closed," Heavey said, citing control factors such as crowd control, alcohol and house damage.
Most officers in CFS houses seemed to favor closing more parties.
Sigma Nu fraternity Social Chair Jess McCarter '99 said, "I can't say the death of the open party would be a huge tragedy."
"If you look at what certain administrators say ... the general theme is to make parties more responsible," he said. "Part of reason they want closed parties is so they don't have too large a number of people at the house" in addition to keeping non-Dartmouth students out of parties.
While detractors have maintained that closed parties would deny many students from using the houses' social space, McCarter said a socially stratified campus was "not the intent of the Greek system."
Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity President Pete Hasenkamp '98 said closed parties were much easier to maintain than open parties.
"Personally, it was much easier for me," he said. "There were fewer problems and the crowd was smaller so it was easier to maintain control over the numbers in the house."
Frias said her house was opposed to the idea of only closed parties but currently holds both open and closed parties.
Frias conceded having only closed parties "makes parties exclusive and it limits the social options on campus when there aren't so many."
But closed parties also give people a chance to relax and the smaller crowds make socialization easier, Frias said.
"You can control who comes in," she said. "You can effectively keep out the people that may cause a problem and the people who come have been directly invited by a member of the house so they're more likely to be accountable for their actions."
