Fraternity members of Washington University have been prohibited from consuming alcohol on porches of fraternity houses this year.

According to David Wallace, coordinator of the Greek housing program, this was the last step in a three-year plan for enforcing the University’s alcohol policy.

The plan was invoked in stages at fraternity houses over the past two years. At first, beer bottles and glasses were banned from being displayed outside chapter houses. In the plan’s second year, students were only allowed to drink from plastic cups.

This year, the third since the plan has been implemented, fraternity members are penalized for drinking in public. The policy extends to the porches outside of fraternity houses as well.

Every municipality in Missouri has an open alcohol container law, and citizens may be handed citations for possessing open alcohol containers in public. According to Wallace, the three-year plan is being implemented to align the Greek housing program’s practices with local and state laws.

“Right now it’s just an inconsistency that we want to fix,” Wallace said.

However, fraternity members are less than pleased about the new measure.

“Personally, I enjoy drinking on the porch,” said a junior in Sigma Phi Epsilon, who requested to remain anonymous in order to avoid drawing criticism from other fraternity members. “I feel like as long as it’s in a cup, I don’t see what the big deal is, especially if we’re keeping it on our property and not wandering around campus with it.”

Wallace stressed that the policy is not specific to fraternities.

“Because [fraternities] are more likely to have opportunities to drink, the three-year alcohol policy plan looks like as if it has been made only for them,” Wallace said.

Other fraternity members see an inconsistency between being permitted to drink inside but not outside. Others say that the policy alters a culture of drinking outdoors.

“I’m vehemently against the policy. It would discourage us from being more visible in the community, and I don’t think it’s unfair for us to drink out in the porch because we don’t operate on the same level as the rest of the student body,” said a sophomore in Kappa Sigma who also wished to remain anonymous.

According to Wallace, fraternity members at Wash. U. have previously been responsive regarding drinking rules, and chapter members have rarely been caught abusing their drinking privileges.

“The policy helps improve public image if you get people to comply with it, but I don’t think it’s a very good reason [to implement the policy] because students would drink anyway and tourists see people drinking in restaurants,” the anonymous sophomore said.

Some fraternity members say that drinking restrictions should not be imposed on them, not only because many are at least 21 years old but also because they feel that they have been respectful of the University’s rules.