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Members of many sororities at UCLA and at colleges across the country are required to abide by rules governing the use of alcohol, visitation from male guests and other general points of conduct while living in sorority houses.

Many of these rules date back to entirely different times and locales, first instituted with the inception of national Greek organizations as early as the 19th century.

“Chi Omega is really old and is based in the South, so sometimes we come up against rules that are based in traditional Southern values,” said Liz Cartwright, a second-year English and Spanish student and a member of the sorority.

The most common rules that sorority members are expected to follow include provisions for the appropriate treatment of male guests in houses.

“Males are only allowed on the first floor,” Cartwright said, “and dads can only be upstairs on move-in day and dad’s day.”

Many other sororities have similar rules.

“Men can’t go upstairs. There can be no men in the house between 3 and 5 a.m. There can’t be alcohol in the chapter house at all, even if you’re over 21 and live in the house,” said Danielle Gerson, a fourth-year anthropology student and the former director of standards and ethics at Alpha Delta Pi.

The rules are derived from a number of sources, Gerson said, including traditions maintained from the organizations’ beginnings, but she maintains they are relevant to current living situations.

“Part of it is that we have 53 girls living in this house, and girls don’t expect to have guys upstairs. So keeping the rule as ‘guys can’t be allowed upstairs’ lets us to walk around in our towels all the time and never feel uncomfortable,” Gerson said. She also said that residents on upper floors have community bathrooms and other circumstances not conducive to a coed clientele.

But these rules are sometimes a point of conflict between house members and the sorority itself, Cartwright said.

“It’s hard for some of the girls because we’ll have date parties, and their boyfriends will come in from out of town and will have to find another place to stay,” said Caitlin Conroy, a second-year English and history student and member of Chi Omega.

Despite the potential inconvenience of such rules, many members find many of them to be useful and practical, especially in regard to male guests on residential floors.

“I feel like the reason the rules are in place is for the safety of other girls and for their comfort,” Conroy said.

Cartwright said that the restrictions on house activity are in the best interest of the members and residents, and are meant to promote serenity, not limit members’ activity.

“I think if sororities had all the same rules as fraternities, we would have a lot of the same problems as fraternities,” Cartwright said.

She pointed out several problems that fraternities face, including dirtiness, poor study environments, loud music and frequent drinking, and said, “A lot of those things can be fun, but they’re also really distracting.”

Some of the house rules that members must abide by are more based in tradition, especially those regarding attire for chapter-member exclusive meetings, Cartwright said.

Cartwright and Conroy said that members must wear closed-toed shoes and clothing covering the shoulders to chapter meetings.

“(The sorority) is seeded in the South and was originally founded on really Christian values, so you still see rules like ‘you can’t have your shoulder showing during chapter,’ which is clearly a bit religious,” Cartwright said. “It’s really traditional. It’s unnecessary.”

Gerson explained that Alpha Delta Pi members are required to wear shoes at all times on the ground floor of the sorority house.

She said the rule can be attributed to the importance of creating a formal impression on guests and representing the organization well.

In contrast, fraternities do not share many of the same restrictions on behavior for members and residents but must take precautions accordingly to ensure the safety of members in the house.

Fraternities purchase liability insurance for members who drink in their houses while most sorority houses do not, Gerson said.

“We are taught etiquette, but nothing is enforced the way it is in sororities,” said Joey Indiviglia, a second-year English student and chaplain of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity.

Indiviglia said that national fraternities, many of which were founded in the late 1800s, existed prior to the founding of national sorority organizations.

Because of their earlier establishment, Indiviglia said that fraternities became the default location of sorority and fraternity interaction, and they have retained that role.

“I think that there is a bit of an unspoken agreement between fraternities and sororities. Frats have taken up the mantle of those that host the parties and the events. It’s a convention – that’s the way it’s been and that’s the way it is,” he said.

As for the traditional roles of fraternities and sororities, Cartwright said that the conventions are possibly outdated.

“If there were direct comparisons between fraternities and sororities, maybe there would be sexism, but the sororities are making these rules themselves, which means it’s inherently maybe traditional and outdated but not sexist.