SBP Houston Summers: Party monitors still on the table

The idea of adult party monitors might evoke images of sad, middle-aged men, but Houston Summers, student body president, said this plank of his platform is not exactly what’s expected.

“I don’t think that adult monitors are a fair classification,” Summers said.

“And what I want to portray is, (by) speaking to the fraternity community and several of their presidents during the campaign, it was really a push to have their individuals trained in sexual assault intervention.”

Party monitors would be adults who look out for and intervene in potential sexual assault incidents at social gatherings.

But these resources for the prevention of sexual assault won’t be confined to Fraternity Court, Summers said.

“It’s not targeted specifically to fraternities,” he said. “It’s targeted to any event, any student group, that is supported in some way, form or fashion by the University, that is having a large event that they would like to use this particular service.”

Summers said these monitors won’t be associated with watching the alcohol consumption or drug use of individuals in any way.

“By no means was my idea geared towards monitoring alcohol use, monitoring capacity issues or anything like that,” he said. “It was simply an extra resource offered to those individuals that might want someone there who is specifically trained in intervention.”

Junior Kathryn Davis said she would support the measure.

“I haven’t heard anything about it, but I would think anything that could prevent sexual assault is a good idea,” she said.

Ion Outterbridge, assistant director of Fraternity and Sorority Life and Community Involvement, said he would like more information about the proposal.

“Any time we have the opportunity to put things in place for the safety of students, (the Interfraternity Council) is in support,” Outterbridge said. “But we would like to see more documentation in place before we can give our full support.”

Summers said there’s been a lull in the implementation of these policies since his campaign but that casual talks have gone on between student government officials and the Interfraternity Council.

“It’s absolutely something that is still on the table, and I think that there has to be a lot of discussion,” Summers said. “This is not something I’m going to push and push and push without any feedback or concerns being addressed by the fraternity community.”

Summers said that despite improvements in sexual assault policies and practices on college campuses in recent years, UNC can always do more.

“I think (the Interfraternity Council has) come a long way addressing some of my concerns that led me to propose this in the first place, but all in all, I’m reasonably happy with what’s going on,” he said.

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