Surprising success of Student Life Office Runouts regulations find mixed reactions

Amy Willey

Staff Writer

This time of year is always know for its parties around campus because of the sorority and fraternity recruitment of new members. These events, known as walk-outs and run-outs respectively have traditionally been cause for great excitement and celebration. However, due to the incidents during last year's run-outs including public intoxication, fighting and destruction of property, new rules have been put into place. After the events of last year the President and Dean of Students at the time demanded a change. The new policy is a result of a combined effort between the Interfraternity Council (IFC) and the Alma College Student Life Office.

This year the sorority walk-outs took place in the Van Duesen. The supporters were designated to one end with the members of the IFC acting as security. The sororities were all gathered on the other end of the room and the women were escorted out a few at a time to announce their choices. Afterwards the women celebrated and went to their respective houses. Saturday, the much-anticipated run-outs took place. The event was more restricted than Walk-outs. The men gathered in Swanson Academic Center (SAC) classroom 113 and waited to be taken to their choice of fraternity houses. The men waited and were escorted one group at a time to their new houses. The festivities were planned to start at 9:00 pm, but actually started earlier, effectively throwing off any potential audience.

Many students anticipated the new rules would actually result in an increase in violence because supporters would be gathered outside drinking and waiting for new members. However, the contrary proved true. As a result of these newly implemented rules, the night was relatively uneventful. This seemingly positive effect was met with mixed reactions. Daniela Benitez (04) a resident assistant says "Party patrol did a good job enforcing the rules." By the same token, Angela Locklear (05) expressed the sentiment that the event was a success, "Everything was excellent, everything was safe. No worries," she says.

On the other hand, many Greeks expressed the opposite view. The fact that There was nothing special about run-outs, as Jason Garvin (05) stated, for some, "it was a great disappointment." Garvin explained that the night of run-outs or walk-outs is supposed to be an important one in the life of the man or woman involved. It was a sad, sad night, he says, "The excitement was absent there because we didn't have the public arena." A new member of the Greek community, Bill Naill (06) expressed disappointed with his experience: "We sat in a room for two hours. It was boring." Furthermore, according to Ty Lawrence (06), The seperation also cut down on positive interfraternal experiences. Lawrence commended organizations that tried to increase interactions, "I was happy to see some painted TKEs in sleeveless T-shirts come by the house to cheer us on, " Lawrence said.

Although the opinions of the student body seem split, the new rules may be here to stay. Dave Blandford, the Assistant Director of Residence Life, though disappointed with the number of people rushing, was generally satisfied with the results. "I thought it went well," he said, "everything seemed to be managed well. I think it will be interesting to see how the students felt about how it went." While noting the small number of male recruits to the Greek community (32/80 possibilities) Blandford expresses confidence that the problem was not the new rules. "The numbers for fraternities and sororities were down this year, [but] I don t think it had anything to do with runouts, he says, it s an issue the college needs to look at. As for next year, I can t say one way or the other, but I would imagine that we will do something similar next year," he said.

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