Tuesday night, members of the greek community met at Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, 351 E. Fairmont Ave., in a closed forum to informally discuss the new "alcohol source project" police program.

The program, which began in February, targets underage drinkers and those who supply alcohol to minors. The alcohol source project provides the police with more manpower -- through an $80,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) -- to target large gatherings in which underage drinking commonly occurs.

With the recent increase in alcohol-related arrests, members of sororities and fraternities saw the need to discuss the facts, rumors, and protective measures concerning their organizations and the alcohol source project, Interfraternity Council President Andy Hackett said.

"The idea was to provide a comfortable environment for people to be honest and deal with the problems faced by their organizations," Hackett said.

Hackett said the meeting was very helpful for members for numerous reasons.

"[The attendees] had rumors dispelled about the project and shared ideas about what is working for the safety of our chapters," he said. "It helped give us a sense of community, which is important because we need to trust each other in order to manage this risk."

State College Police Department Sgt. Dana Leonard, the officer in charge of alcohol source project, said he was glad the students met.

"It's good that they are getting together to try to help solve the problem," he said.

"The whole project is designed to help prevent dangerous drinking by minors, as well as people of legal age, and I'm glad they are taking the issue seriously."

Panhellenic Council (PHC) President Krista Eck said she thinks the meeting will positively affect greek organizations and their relations with the rest of the community.

"Hopefully, as a community, we will be able to continue to adhere to social policies. The main thing is compliance with the police, the borough and the law," she said.

Leonard also emphasized hopes for a positive outcome for the community through the work of the project and students' support.

"Maybe with our work and theirs, we can all cause an improvement in the community," he said.

Eck also said it was very important for the members to meet.

"The chapters are each others' best resources; this open forum gave lots of members a chance to get information so they know what is going on with the project," she said.

Liz Wallace, PHC vice president of standards, said the meeting was designed to help greek organization members.

"It was really just an information session for our organization so everyone understands the project and what's going on, not a bunch of hearsay," she said.

Jared Brown, assistant director of fraternity and sorority life, said the meeting was successful for many reasons.

"It went really well. We discussed how our members are socializing and what we can do to be safer," he said.

At the meeting, Brown emphasized that fraternity and sorority members knew they were not being singled out as suspects for the alcohol source project.

"We realize that the police aren't simply targeting greek organizations. They are watching private houses and bars, too," he said.

Leonard also said the project has affected many different locations.

"Some of the sites of this dangerous drinking are fraternities, but some are private houses, and some are even licensed establishments," he said.

Though nothing official resulted from the meeting, the ideas covered a wide range of suggestions designed to help promote the safety of each organization.

One of the ideas discussed was having the sign-in sheet indoors and having a guest list outside with people monitoring it to avoid the large lines that attract uninvited guests, Hackett said.

"We just talked about different things like that," he said.

Wallace said the session was very helpful in promoting the knowledge and awareness for organization members.

"Our members are now simply better informed," she said.