BY CATHERINE CLARK

In print | October 2, 2003

While advertising for fund-raiser-style parties has always been prohibited and punished on campus, this year the administration will crack down on illegal advertising.

A $50 dollar fine will be levied against all groups who advertise non-SAC funded parties or include promises of alcohol in any party advertisement.

A similar rule has always existed in the student handbook. But this year Director of Student Activities Jenny Yim said the administration aims to create more awareness of its existence among the student body and punish its infringement “more proactively.”

While Yim focused specifically on the posting of flyers around campus, groups also cannot send out written invitations to more than one-third of the campus for a private party.

Accordingly, she has sent out a reserved-students e-mail reminding the student body not to advertise for private parties. Yim aims not to let ignorance be an excuse for students groups faced with fines.

A private party is defined as a party that demands a cover charge. By the student handbook’s definition, these parties must be by invitation only. Cover charges are considered to go against Swarthmore’s commitment to create a social environment equally accessible to all students.

While other organizations have received fines in past years, Phi Psi was the first group this year to be fined for advertising a party it held the first weekend of school. But other groups have cleverly found ways around the advertising prohibition to still hold successful fundraising parties.

The men’s and women’s swim team advertised for their recent fund-raiser for their winter break training trip to St. Croix by wearing t-shirts with slogans such as “Come early, get lei’d!” and “The swim team doesn’t believe in being dry.”

While swim team captain Krista Gigone ’04 describes these rules as “a pain,” she said she did not think that “it would be fair to grant groups doing fund raising the same degree of advertising freedom as groups doing the work to throw a free party.”

Fair or not fair, public advertising for private parties or advertisements promising the availability of alcohol at any part will not be accepted on campus this year.

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