‘Out of control’ party forces changing alcohol attitudes
‘Omega’ fraternity to promote alcohol awareness, benefits of having Greek groups
Emily Bartelheim and Ramsey Kincannon
News Editors
On Nov. 9, the Phi Omega Sigma fraternity (commonly known as Omega) hosted a “traditional” party, in the words of Vice President Andrew Holmes, which ended up getting “out of hand.” The party included an ice luge (a block of ice carved out to create a path for alcohol to flow through) that led to several students going to the Longbrake Student Wellness Center and some even going to the emergency room at the Wooster hospital. Naturally, the hangover from such a party rippled out, almost costing the Omega fraternity their charter and on-campus house.
Every spring, members of each fraternity and sorority meet and determine when to host rush events, which are recruitment opportunities for each greek group. However, the Omega rush chair “failed to go to the meeting, so [the group] was randomly assigned dates,” said Holmes. Because some of the dates interfered with other activities, the Omegas instead attempted to hold unofficial rushes at different times and publicized those. Those events included a rush party co-hosted at the Underground, which is an annual November tradition. Because of these rush events on different days, there was a miscommunication between members of the Omega fraternity, who thought that they were relieved of their assigned dates, and the administration. As a result, many Omegas thought that Nov. 9 was a rush-free night, and held a normal party. The tone was people “just having fun,” according to Holmes, and “we failed in our responsibility as members of this community as somewhat mature adults to look after kids who we care about.”
Because of the bad timing of the party, which was technically held on an official rush date, the Omegas had to deal with a variety of consequences, both self-imposed and administration-mandated. The group immediately put themselves on “their own probation,” and have been working with the Judicial Board and other Wooster groups in order to encourage better monitoring of alcohol consumption. In order to do so, the Omegas will be working with the much-maligned Safe, Sober, Smart program, enacted this past semester in order to encourage alcohol and drug awareness.
In addition to promoting healthy alcohol consumption, the members of Omega have pledged to continue successful volunteering programs that have worked in the past, such as a toy drive and a gift-package drive for troops serving overseas.
The fallout from the party comes during the eternal debate about greek groups’ value at The College of Wooster, but Holmes and the rest of the members of the Omega fraternity hope that this doesn’t reflect negatively against greek groups on the whole. “Everybody drinks,” said Holmes, “and people are happy to put the bad on the Greeks.” Holmes suggests that the “great thing about [Greeks] is that they have a lot of energy and potential that’s…ready to be mobilized” in order to help out both current and future Wooster students.