Pi Kappa Alpha throws “Party”

EDUCATION: Fraternity hosts educational role-playing party with UND officials to promote safe partying.

It’s no secret that house parties during college can get chaotic, but one of UND’s fraternities is doing its part to combat that.

Pi Kappa Alpha, better known as Pike, teamed up with the office of Student Affairs’ Alcohol and Other Drugs Committee to host the university’s first ever “House Party,” a free tour of the fraternity house. During the tour, actors role-playing difficult but common situations found at college house parties while a tour guide explained the best way to handle them.

“I think it’s very good PR for Pike,” UND senior and Delta Gamma member Karissa Peterson said. “It’s really good for their relationship with University Police and for Greek life all-around.”

While a long line of students waited outside the house, groups of approximately 10 at a time went in for the 15-minute-long tour. The performance tour involved a girl getting sent to the emergency room for alcohol poisoning, a girl getting sexually assaulted, a guy receiving a minor-in-consumption while peeing outside, a guy getting made fun of by his friends for wanting to stop drinking, two guys getting busted for marijuana use and a girl who got pregnant and got an STD after having sex with her boyfriend’s friend.

“We’ve gotten a lot of great feedback about the event,” Pi Kappa Alpha president Nick Anderson said. “The situations are all real and relatable.”

The House Party was organized by Pi Kappa Alpha alumnus Mike Tingum and Assistant Director of Health & Wellness Education Becky Lamboley. Lamboley had originally created the program while working at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee but then passed it off to Tingum to finish.

“We’ve been planning it since last spring, and it’s been a ton of work,” Lamboley said. “I gotta give credit to the members of the house for being so cooperative.”

According to Lamboley, a lot of colleges are now doing similar projects, but this was the first one ever done in North Dakota and the first one ever done in a fraternity house. The tours were done from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. for three days last week; Sept. 4, 5, and 6.

“This project has been very good for us. Mike and Becky have worked really hard on it,” Anderson said. “We want everyone to see that the Greek community is here to help.”

The tours attracted a wide variety of enthusiastic students, many of whom are fellow members of the Greek community.

“There are a lot of people here today, but we had a ton yesterday, way more,” Pi Kappa Alpha member Michael Badurek said.

Seeing all the people who showed up was the best part of the House Party project, according to Anderson and Lamboley.

“We really hope we can continue it every year,” Anderson said.

Jaye Millspaugh is the multimedia editor for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at jaye.millspaugh.2@my.und.edu.