A look into the rumor that Wofford will bust off-campus parties
As COVID-19 violations began to pop up across campus in the past few weeks, including the violations that suspended five of Wofford’s six fraternities, rumors began to circulate that Wofford would begin to bust off-campus parties in addition to their practice of busting on-campus ones already in place. This rumor led to students questioning the ability and legality of Wofford taking its guidelines beyond the “Wofford Bubble.”
According to John Fort, associate professor of economics and pre-law advisor, Wofford is able monitor students to an extent off-campus. He said, “[students’] relationship with Wofford is contractual and I think [their] agreement with Wofford allows them to check on [them]—even off campus—for ‘health and wellness.’ I think the issue for a public university may be different, but we are private.”
In addition, he provided a “cheat sheet” for students to determine if a law can be deemed a “bad law,” stating, “Lon Fuller, a legal philosopher, sets out ways [to determine].”
Fuller’s list of signs that a law may be “bad” includes:
- Failure to make rules at all
- Failure to publicize rules
- Abuse of retroactive legislation
- Failure to make rules understandable
- Enactment of contradictory rules
- Rules that require conduct beyond the powers of the affected party
- Enacting frequent changes
- Failure of congruence between rules as announced and their active administration
Fort said about the list, “from that, students can decide if Wofford’s rules are good or bad.”
As for the confirmation of the rumor itself, James Hall, campus safety director, released a statement.
“Campus Safety is responsible for enforcing federal, state and local laws as well as campus regulations, including the college’s COVID-19 procedures,” he said.“Officers will not disband parties off campus or issue violations at events taking place away from campus. However, we will continue issuing citations on campus if necessary.”
Despite this, one anonymous student had an anecdote concerning their gathering being approached by a campus safety officer.
“I was at one of my friends’ house off campus with 6-7 people on a Sunday just hanging out, watching football, and [a campus safety officer] knocked on the door and asked to search the house,” they said. “Obviously, [they] had no warrant, so [they] didn’t.”
The student made sure to note that no one who was at the house that night got into any trouble because there was “nothing to bust,” but they also said that they found it “super weird” and did not understand why Campus Safety was there at all.
Another student from that gathering stated, “it happened, [Dean Hurley] can vouch.”
In addition, students have questioned the truth about Wofford’s handling of off-campus parties, specifically the claim that the reports that suspended five fraternities all came from the Silent Witness form.
One anonymous student asked, “why would a silent witness be at an off-campus party? Why would they want to attend a gathering if they were going to report it?”
Questions about Wofford’s authority handling COVID-19 guidelines have swirled around campus since move-in for the spring 2021 semester, resulting in pushback against rules in place in locations such as Zach’s Food Court or the Sandor Teszler Library. Rules such as “no eating indoors” and “one person per table” have recently caused a stir in the student body, with many feeling that the restrictions are a bit much.
Others, however, feel that the guidelines are appropriate. Overall, across campus, the guidelines are generally consistent, with rules concerning eating or gathering matching in each building.
On Feb. 4, Burwell opened dine-in for the first time this semester, and an e-mail from Roberta Hurley, vice president and dean of students, on Feb. 1 mentioned that the staff was hopeful Wofford could move to Level 3 of the COVID-19 guidelines by that weekend.
