Cold weather from last month’s winter storm led to large groups of fraternity party attendees moving into small indoor spaces.

These parties occur primarily in the backyards of fraternity houses, with access to indoor restrooms, water stations and space to dance or engage with friends. When the weather dropped below freezing in late January, these events moved exclusively indoors. ​

Temperatures in Austin have already warmed up, and parties will move back outside. However, some students say they are still concerned about fraternity safety, overcapacity and fire hazard practices.

Some students, like Simone Drechsler, a radio, television and film freshman, said she felt confined at these indoor events because they had less room to move around and breathe. Drechsler attended a party at the Sigma Alpha Mu house, also known as “Sammy,” in collaboration with the Iota Delta “Nupes” on Jan 30.

“It turns into a sauna in there … you genuinely suffocate,” said Drechsler. “You’re dripping in sweat, you can’t breathe, it’s such a panic attack-inducing thing.”

Fraternities must acquire permits for all planned parties, said Aiden Weinstein, former risk manager of Sigma Alpha Mu fraternity. Weinstein, who worked to get these permits, said it is a long process that includes multiple meetings with the city’s fire marshal. Fraternities must provide detailed blueprints of party setups and refilling fire extinguishers, Weinstein said. 

“There certainly is a stigma that frat parties are just ‘off the walls, anything goes,’ but every single fraternity on campus, every other risk manager that I’ve talked to, all take safety very seriously,” said Weinstein, a radio television and film sophomore. “We do our best, and with the help of the Fire Marshal and security, we make sure that everyone has a good time.”

The fire marshal sets capacity limitations for the property when meeting with risk managers, Weinstein said. Some attendees still said they find the environment suffocating.

“It definitely can get overcrowded to the point where entrances and exits are overflowing,” said Sloane Wheeler, a radio, television and film freshman.

Nilisha Banepali, a behavioral and social data science freshman who also has been to multiple fraternity events, said that fraternities should also regulate the number of people inside at one time, rather than simply on the premises. Banepali said she is unsure if they will.

“How far are they willing to go to actually implement those rules?” Banepali said. “They’re frat parties, I feel like people don’t really take them that seriously.”