Title: Drop your cups; How to not get your greek house shut down
Genre: Customary Folklore
Informant info: Daniel C. Reitsch, from Rockford, IL, VP at Chi Heorot Fraternity and Dartmouth class of 2016 President
Type of lore: Customary
Language: English
Country of Origin: U.S.A
Social / Cultural Context: Greek Houses tend to be lenient in regards to serving minors alcohol; therefore, they can find themselves in trouble if campus security discovers that they are doing such an act. Accordingly, campus security performs “walkthroughs” in which they knock on the fraternity door and then do a walkthrough to make sure that all college rules are being followed. Greek houses have rituals that they perform in order to make sure they pass walkthroughs.
Transcript: When minors who are drinking at a greek house hear or see one of the warning systems, they immediately get rid of whatever they are drinking. And if they don’t then fraternity brothers will slap the cups out of their hands. It is said that S & S officers will check students’ ID’s to make sure that they are of age to drink and the consequences for someone who is not of age and is drinking can be severe.
Collector’s comments: The informant was very matter of fact about the rituals, he did acknowledge that he had never seen the bell system in use, but that it was a system that he had heard was used in the past very often.
Collected by Robert Moffitt, Class of 2016.