Most sororities have to follow a sexist and potentially dangerous rule that gives men on college campuses power
- A rule within the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) - an umbrella organization of 26 autonomous sororities - bans alcohol in sorority houses.
- Since these sororities can't throw parties themselves, they throw a number of joint parties, or "mixers," with fraternities throughout the year.
- At Yale University, some students note the inequity in the arrangement.
On college campuses across America, groups of men who've pledged a brotherhood to one another as part of a fraternity gather and throw parties with alcohol.
Most women who are part of equivalent sister organizations are prohibited from doing so.
That's because of a rule within the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) - an umbrella organization of 26 autonomous sororities - that bans alcohol in sorority houses. These sororities are not allowed to throw events with alcohol, because their governing national chapters voluntarily elect to adhere to that rule, and pay lower insurance premiums as a result.
Since sororities can't throw parties themselves, they throw a number of joint parties, or "mixers," with fraternities throughout the year, which make the two organizations codependent. At Yale University, some students note the inequity in the arrangement.
"Sororities are social places for women but they depend on frats for real estate and parties," Korinayo Thompson, co-president of Yale University's co-ed fraternity Fence Club, told Business Insider.
This rule also means that off-campus parties are almost exclusively thrown by male-only organizations. And in these spaces men are in control. Fraternity brothers monitor the door, dictating which attendees are worthy of entrance and gauging the gender ratio, and stand behind the bar.
"There's something weird about a space operated and controlled by men that feeds alcohol to women," Thompson said.
The NPC says its policies represent national best practices. "Our organizations were founded to support scholarship, leadership and engagement on campus - all of which are principles that lead them to prioritize substance-free living environments," Dani Weatherford, executive director of the NPC, said in a statement to Business Insider. "We believe that regardless of where a party takes place, the efforts needed to create safe campuses and battle sexual assault are universal - requiring a culture shift, not a venue shift."
Since women in sororities at Yale must throw joint parties with fraternities, or events at third-party vendors like local bars, if they wish to serve alcohol, they've developed a strategy to protect themselves from men they believe have engaged in sexual harassment or assault.
They use anonymous Google forms to compile the names of men who women fear are dangerous, and then prohibit them from attending certain social events.
"If there is a person you would feel unsafe having at formal, please utilize the Anonymous Feedback form," an October 2017 email to Kappa Alpha Theta sorority members read. "Please use this form seriously and submit it by end of the day Saturday."
The women of Theta submitted the names of people they believed had engaged in sexual harassment or assault, a Theta sorority sister told Business Insider. Later, executive members of the sorority reviewed the anonymous Google form and barred listed men from the party. Other Yale sororities, including Pi Phi and Alpha Phi, use a similar strategy, according to members of each group.