Cal Poly plans to control St. Fratty’s this school year by once again hosting an alternative event with ASI and the InterFraternity Council. The San Luis Obispo City Council still voiced their concerns about students needing more event space during last Tuesday’s special city council meeting.
“Our goal this year is to provide a safe, positive and engaging experience for our students,” Cal Poly Vice President of Administration and Finance Allison Baird-James said. “That really encourages them to celebrate responsibly and in partnership with the community.”
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This is an ongoing effort by the Cal Poly administration to work with the City of San Luis Obispo to reduce student disturbance in SLO, particularly on St. Patrick’s day.
According to Baird-James, the changes made to St. Fratty’s last year resulted in 75% less citations, 76% less student conduct cases, 60% fewer medical transports and a huge drop in vandalism.
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The event is said to be early in the morning on Saturday, March 14 with a concert and festival layout. It will be designed to hold more students than it did last year. Baird-James notes Cal Poly is actively working with SLO law enforcement and community partners to ensure the safety of this event.
“We’re really looking at what were the lessons from last year and what we can do to improve upon things,” Baired-James said.
City council worried partying culture will continue to disrupt the community
Later on in the meeting, councilmember Emily Francis brought up the issue of lack of event space for students.
“From our hearing last week, something we saw come out of that is demand for event space, gathering space,” Francis said, referencing the last city council meeting about fraternity Delta Chi getting their permit revoked after they received noise and unruly gathering citations from the city.
This discussion stems from the broader issue of San Luis Obispo and Cal Poly wanting to minimize large gatherings of students while Cal Poly also plans to add more Greek chapters and increase enrollment.
“We understand the demand, from a student perspective as well, for what we kind of consider third spaces,” Vice President of Strategic Enrollment and Student Affairs Terrance Harris said. “Those are spaces outside of the classroom, where students can meet and gather.”
Harris notes Cal Poly hopes to increase student organizations and Greek chapters so students can be more spread out and meet in smaller groups. He also mentions Cal Poly is adding more on-campus spaces for events like a student success center.
“The demand is not going to go away,” Harris said. “We know that and we recognize that.”
This story appeared in a printed newspaper on Nov. 12. For more stories from the November print edition check out the featured print section on our website or the full edition.