Alcohol Problem
Alcohol Problem
Cal Poly Greek life has an alcohol problem.
This claim was made by the North American Interfraternity Conference (NIC), representing 75 national fraternities, in a report published in 2011. Additionally, an Emergency Room doctor at Sierra Vista Medical Center, a hospital located about a quarter mile from Cal Poly’s campus, described his experience with intoxicated college students impacting the ER. His plea to San Luis Obispo City Council can be read here. Fourteen years later, in 2025, things haven’t changed since the drink-to-excess behavior in our neighborhood constantly surrounds us.
On October 15, 2013, Bloomberg published an article, “Cal Poly Brings Back Freshman Pledging After Lobbying.”
Following the alcohol-induced death of a freshman, Carson Starkey, during an initiation ritual at an illegal satellite fraternity house in a single-family-neighborhood, Cal Poly banned fraternities from recruiting newly arrived students in 2010.
After that, the North-American Interfraternity Conference (NIC) quickly opposed the ban by lobbying Cal Poly administrators, funding a study against it, and organizing a three-year campaign led by student leaders. Ultimately, this resulted in an agreement called the Deferred Recruitment Compromise, with the university lifting the deferred recruiting restriction for its fraternities in June 2013.
Cal Poly Leadership Change
Leadership changes at Cal Poly also helped the fraternity cause. Jeffrey Armstrong, appointed in 2011 as Cal Poly President, and Keith Humphrey, former Vice President for Student Affairs, were sympathetic to the fraternities, as both had personal fraternity experiences. As part of the Deferred Recruitment Compromise, fraternities were required to register their parties and participate in alcohol education.
Money makers
Fraternity membership significantly increased, with national fraternities and affiliated foundations generating substantial revenue from student dues. NIC President Peter Smithhisler emphasized the importance of recruitment, calling it the “lifeblood for every chapter.” After Cal Poly announced the ban, NIC executives visited Cal Poly, urging administrators to rescind deferred recruitment. The NIC funded an $8,000 evaluation of Cal Poly’s Greek system, which ultimately criticized the university’s recruitment process and highlighted the major role of alcohol and hazing in fraternity life.
Alcohol was “a, and perhaps THE, defining factor” of Cal Poly Greek life.
– North American Interfraternity Conference Report
No Change
Despite claims of improved alcohol awareness and safety measures by fraternities, reports and incidents indicated otherwise. In 2011, the North American Interfraternity Conference published a report that said alcohol was central to Greek life at Cal Poly, and subsequent incidents, including hospitalizations and suspensions of fraternities, suggested that fraternity and sorority members had not changed their behavior since the freshman’s death. It’s 2025, and nothing has changed with the proliferation of illegal fraternity (satellite) houses operating as main Chapter houses in our R-1 and R-2 residential neighborhood.
Safety Issues
We witness drunk underage college people stagger past our house, unsure whether they’ve made it home. A large percentage of them are sorority members. Sometimes they use our yard as a restroom to vomit or urinate. We often hear fraternities chanting during drinking games, pre-gaming and encouraging the rapid consumption of alcohol as part of their ritual.
A neighbor shared with us her experience of when an intoxicated young person was adamantly trying to get into her house through the front door. She kept telling the young lady that she had the wrong house, but the young lady wouldn’t believe it. She kept trying. Eventually, she gave up and called her girlfriends, and they directed her to another address up the street. She staggered away in the wrong direction.
An editorial by the student paper Mustang News, written by Sean McMinn on October 2, 2013, argued that the administration’s decision to allow immediate freshman recruitment was a mistake, as fraternities had not demonstrated improved behavior since the death of Carson Starkey. The parallels between the 2011 hospitalization of an Alpha Phi sorority recruit and Carson Starkey’s death were cited as evidence of ongoing risks associated with full-scale Greek recruitment during the fall quarter. His full article can be read here.
Disturbing
One particular night, there was a group of drunk young women on the sidewalk in front of our house. There was a loud commotion, it was late, and someone was vomiting in our yard. After a while, my wife got out of bed and asked if she could help them. They declined and moved on. In reviewing our home security camera footage, it revealed a distressing situation and the darker, toxic side of Greek culture. A young woman was being forced to vomit by her sorority sisters. She repeatedly said no, yet the others overruled her and described to her how to get sick – “pull trig”. She was ordered to get on her knees, and one of them put their fingers down her throat. While this poor young woman was throwing up, the others were telling her how they did it all the time. Every time they went out. All hot girls did it. After she was done vomiting, they told her to straighten herself up and look pretty if she wanted to hook up with (someone’s name). After my wife asked if she could help them. They moved up the street out of view, but you can still hear the conversation faintly. The sorority sisters were constantly telling her to get it together, and if she didn’t, they would call (someone’s name) and she would find herself “butt-f**ked in the middle of nowhere”.
This is someone’s child. They were shepherding her to a fraternity party to hook up with someone. She was absolutely wasted. She was far too drunk for anything to be consentual. The video disturbed me.