OXFORD, Ohio — One typically doesn’t hear about college students boycotting parties, but it’s a new idea spreading across Miami University’s campus.
Following a video-gone-viral depicting students allegedly binge drinking at a block party in Oxford, student Zach Scheid wants everyone to know that it was not a fraternity that threw the party.
“People sometimes make poor decisions,” Scheid, who is also president of the university’s Interfraternity Council, told WCPO. “Poor decisions tend to sometimes end up in group-think.”
As the IFC’s president, Scheid has plans to push for a fraternity- and sorority-wide boycott of any party that does not follow a new Greek social policy put in place this year that mandates stricter policies and oversight when it comes to parties at fraternities and sororities’ so-called “annex houses.”
“You’re now able to have a party at an annex if you have a third-party vendor, so you have a bartender that’s monitoring the inflow and outflow of alcohol,” Scheid said. “You have bouncers that are ID’ing people, putting wristbands on people… the same way you would do if you went to any bar uptown.”
The new policy was put into place after three fraternities on campus were suspended, one accused of ordering pledges to drink 100 beers in one night, tallying them on their bodies with markers.
“It’s extremely disappointing,” Scheid said.
Steed believes most students will embrace the new policy, saying that he thinks most students are more responsible when it comes to drinking than that viral video depicts.
Obviously, for now, the semester is still new. The hope is these strong consequences and new ideas will keep all of the university’s students safer.
