The typical Friday night fraternity party may not be an option for non-greek students in the future.

At a recent Panhellenic Council meeting, members discussed the possibility of issuing special identification cards for members of fraternities and sororities.

The identification cards, or "greek IDs," are a goal for the Panhellenic executive board to make greek life safer and more exclusive, said Mary Kaye Jacono, Panhellenic president.

"My personal goal is, of course, greek safety," Jacono said. "Not just [for the] greek community, but for everybody else."

If the proposal is passed, IDs will be issued to students in greek organizations to allow them access to fraternity parties and other events within the greek community. Non-greek students will be unable to attend unless they have been placed on a guest list.

"The point of guest lists is not to alienate non-greek people. We're just trying to improve things down the road," Jacono said. "Right now the problem is to cut down on the crowds."

On an average weekend night, some fraternities see between 100 and 150 people, said John Callahan (freshman-division of undergraduate studies), a fraternity member.

The Interfraternity Council (IFC) supports the greek ID proposal as well.

"It's just an idea we're throwing out for things to become more exclusive," Steve DiOrio, IFC president, said. "That's something I would like to see happen. If we get greek IDs, we will be using them in IFC."

DiOrio said he is unsure of the influence the council can have on individual fraternities to enforce the ID system or whether the decision would be up to each chapter.

"I would like to encourage it, to make the selection much more exclusive," DiOrio said.

One member of a greek organization disagrees.

"I think that implementation of an all-greek party system has already gone under way with the socials," said Derald Hay (senior-forestry), a member of Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity. "I open up the parties to my friends who are non-greek, and feel like if I am going to have a party at my house, I should be able to have whoever I want."

Another reason IFC is in support of greek IDs is because leaders feel it would increase membership.

"People won't be able to say 'let's go hang out there because it's fun even though we aren't going to join,' " DiOrio said. "We would like it to become [an organization] where people would be interested much more. It would be for the atmosphere, because of what goes on in the houses both academically and socially."

Hay disagreed.

"We're going to hurt the interaction between greeks and non-greeks because we are all here for the same reason -- to get an education," Hay said. "It's going to make it a lot harder to recruit if we can't open up to the general public."

Some students think the greek ID system will reduce the number of recruits.

"I'm going to rush next fall. For someone in my position right now I think that [IDs] would be a bad thing," said Emily Rickel (freshman-hotel restaurant and institutional management). "I think it would cause more people not to join because it's becoming such an exclusive thing. I don't know what people would do at Penn State."

Rickel agreed with both sides.

"I see it as yes, if you can't go to a frat party then more people will join, but I think that will cause a major gap as well," Rickel said. "If you can't go to a frat party how are you even going to know if that's something you are interested in, number one?

"And, number two, being involved in a sorority is nice to have that core group of friends, but I think a lot of sororities promote interaction with other groups of people that intertwine all of your groups of friends," she said.

The Panhellenic executive board has been researching the topic and plans to work with National Panhellenic Conference and Penn State for possible funding for such identification cards, Jacono said.

No discussions about funding have taken place with the university yet.