In an effort to reduce what they have deemed “car barring” — a practice of drinking heavily before entering a party — members of the UW Interfraternity Council (IFC) proposed an amendment to the Risk Management Policy that would allow single-house parties to serve hard alcohol. The amendment was voted down by a majority in an IFC executive meeting last night.

The amendment was originally proposed by Spencer Launer, president of Alpha Epsilon Pi, at the president’s meeting two weeks ago. Launer chose not to comment for this article, but Thai Dang, president of the IFC, said he was not in favor of the amendment, as it would be a step back from last year’s decision by the IFC to disallow beverages with alcohol contents above 8 percent at any type of party in the Greek community or at tier II events.

“I voted against it because it would have been a major step backwards [for the Greek community],” said Ryan Herbert, president of Delta Chi, who attended the meeting.

The amendment would have moved single-house parties, in which one fraternity is responsible for the hosting of the party, into the tier I classification. As a result, single-house parties would be allowed to serve hard alcohol.

Under the recently implemented tier system, parties are classified as tier I, tier II or tier III events. Tier I events include grab-a-dates, cocktails and dances. These are known as “exchanges” with sororities, and hard alcohol can be served.

Single-house parties are classified as tier II events, along with bi-ads and tri-ads.

At these tier II events, no hard alcohol can be served — only beer and flavored malt beverages with less than 8 percent alcohol content.

The amendment’s supporters suggested that this change would help cut down on car barring by guests, which sometimes occurs due to such limitations.

When students participate in this practice, it is much harder for the fraternity to ensure that guests are drinking responsibly, supporters said at the meeting two weeks ago.

However, those opposed to the amendment suggested that it would mitigate the effort made last year to ban hard alcohol from all parties.

“The direction we were going [after last year’s action] was very proactive,” said Tony Nelli, president of Psi Upsilon fraternity, “and this amendment would have only been a step backwards.”

Nick Feldman, IFC vice president of public relations, said that many of the presidents who voted the amendment down saw it as “unnecessary restructuring.”

After all, the same group of presidents who worked on amending the Risk Management Policy last year to ban hard alcohol are still in office, and most of them are still in support of the decision.

Currently, the police do not conduct walkthroughs of tier I “date exchange” events. However, the police regularly conduct walkthroughs of registered parties. The amendment would have jeopardized the tier I events’ immunity to police walkthroughs, Herbert said.

“When there are registered parties at fraternities, officers regularly do checks. There is an expectation that the [fraternities] will be acting in compliance with the law and the IFC’s rules and regulations,” said UWPD Lieutenant Craig Wilson. “Anything approved by the IFC, we would be enforcing.”

As for the future of alcohol policy in the Greek community, some members seem to think the status quo is just fine.

“I never really understood the purpose of the amendment,” Nelli said. “It didn’t seem like it would help us out in the Greek community, anyways.”

Reach reporter Brian Byrnes at features@dailyuw.com.