Cal Poly’s Delta Chi chapter ran into trouble using the party registration website to register an exchange with Alpha Omicron Pi.
Brooke Sperbeck
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Three weeks after passing a party registration policy draft, fraternity presidents are experiencing problems with registering their social events using the new system.
Delta Chi President and civil engineering senior Gannon De Petris is one greek life leader who has expressed complaints about the registration process. After his fraternity used the party registration website to register a date party during the first weekend after social probation was lifted, De Petris said he was “impressed with how organized it was.”
His feelings changed a week later, however, when he encountered problems with the process.
“It’s really a pain in the ass,” De Petris said. “We’ve had to resend the greek offices the same documents four or five different times and they keep losing them.”
While attempting to register for an exchange with Alpha Omicron Pi last weekend, De Petris said his chapter submitted the necessary paperwork online, totaling five or six separate documents.
After finishing the registration process, De Petris said his fraternity got an email from the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life saying they never received the necessary paperwork.
“Between us and the other sorority, it’s over 10 different documents that we’re sending in and they’re losing,” De Petris said. “So it’s this huge mess.”
De Petris said the member of his fraternity responsible for submitting the registration paperwork spent hours working on just that exchange.
“It’s very frustrating,” De Petris said. “I know the guy that has submitted it for us has to spend a couple hours now on his computer resending documents to the greek life offices, and primarily (coordinator of fraternity and sorority life Kathryn O’Hagan).”
Theta Chi President and biomedical engineering junior Zach Gates has also experienced trouble registering an event for his fraternity.
“Especially with the first couple of events we’ve tried to register, the policy isn’t super clear about some of the things,” Gates said.
One event Theta Chi attempted to register was denied because the event was held at a residence not considered an official satellite house, Gates said.
Gates said his fraternity was unaware of how to officially register a satellite house, because they had never been required to register them and the new policy does not explain how to do so.
“We assumed that when we submitted the application, that would be a registered satellite house,” Gates said. “This is the house we’re going to have it at; obviously, this is a registered satellite house because that’s where we are trying to have it and that’s part of the policy.”
Another requirement not explicitly explained in the policy is both chapters must register as hosts for a combined event, Gates said.
“We didn’t realize that for the exchange, we also had to register as a host of the event that the sorority was hosting,” Gates said.
Because of miscommunications about the policy, Gates said his fraternity has had to add paperwork to its registration past the deadline, including a liquor license that was submitted to the greek office just four hours before an event was held.
“If you submit the form five days out but there’s mistakes and stuff, it’s not super strict because if you make a mistake, they’ll tell you exactly what mistake you made and you can fix it,” Gates said. “You can do that within the five days.”
Though he understands the policy is new, Gates said being able to submit paperwork late makes it seem like the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life isn’t “super intent” on enforcing it.
“It kind of seems like it diminishes the reason for having it,” Gates said.
Collecting birth dates from guests who are over 21 has also been difficult, especially when events are held at third-party venues with venue employees checking guests in, Gates said.
“Third-party people checking IDs don’t want to have a list where they have to write down the birthday of everyone who’s 21,” Gates said.
Panhellenic President and business administration junior Danielle Durante said she had not heard any negativity so far from her chapter presidents about the policy.
“There really hasn’t been too many regular parties,” Durante said. “It’s been more exchanges and formals, so I’ll be interested to see how the process works for just regular parties on the weekends.”
The policy is a working document, which means greek life leaders and administrators will be able to make changes to it when interim review begins mid-March.
According to De Petris, the Interfraternity Council has already expressed issues about the policy to O’Hagan.
“I understand that since we just passed it, it’s going to have initial complications,” De Petris said. “But I think that since campus was pressuring us so much to pass it, they would be more prepared for us to run with it, and so it’s been disappointing on their end.”
Dean of Students Jean DeCosta declined to comment on individual cases of fraternity registration incidents without knowing more details about each one, Cal Poly spokesperson Matt Lazier wrote in a statement to Mustang News.
“She has, as of this time, received no direct complaints about inability to register,” Lazier wrote. “As well, her office is trying to be flexible while everyone works to iron out any glitches that might come up — knowing that it takes time to get any new system running smoothly.”
O’Hagan could not be reached for comment.