The UA Women’s Resource Center collaborated with Fraternity and Sorority Programs on holding workshops that plan to host registered events during the upcoming fall semester.

Chapters must register events such as date dashes and philanthropy events, two weeks prior to the event date. To do this, the event planner must work with Fraternity and Sorority Programs to ensure proper legal paperwork is filled out and submitted correctly. The workshops “Turn Down For What” focused on engaging students with conversations about safe partying and how to help decrease sexual violence, according to Jamie Utt for WRC Men’s Programming.

Utt said the mandatory collaborative work started with Greek life because of the influence Greek life has on campus. “I think Greek life has a wonderful influence on campus,” Utt said. “Where Greek life leads, the campus follows.”

Utt said there were at least twenty sessions that began at the beginning of February and ended on Thursday. Make-up sessions were offered for chapter members who could not attend their specified session.

Interim Director of Fraternity and Sorority Programs Jenny Nirh said that chapters are only required to attend the “Turn Down For What” programs if they plan hosting events with alcohol in the future.

“It is extremely important that all students are regularly educated on a variety of safety issues,” Nirh said.

The workshops consisted mainly of open group discussions of what people believed would make the perfect party. Utt said people often said the best ones include food, good music, a lot of people and alcohol.

“We are trying to diagnose what people see as the relationship between alcohol and parties,” Utt said.

One in three of sexual violence perpetrators are under the influence, which motivated WRC and Fraternity and Sorority Programs to encourage more communication about sex positivity and to “change the party environment.”

The WRC has three different internships that focus on feminism, consent and engaging men on violence prevention.

“We are constantly trying to do more education programs,” Utt said.

Nirh said the main goal of putting on these workshops is to make sure that the fraternity and sorority community is educated on healthy, safety and wellness topics.

“I do not think Greek life is the problem, but the solution,” Utt said. “I hope each chapter member thinks, ‘I can help prevent sexual violence.’”