Cal Poly learned from last year’s mistakes when it came to its little 3 a.m. alternative to St. Fratty’s Day.
Instead of only “selling”—giving away—5,000 tickets to the Morning on the Green shindig and making another 1,000 students wait behind a flimsy barricade that they shoved their way through, the university “sold” 14,000 of the free tickets.
At one time, 11,000 students were vibing to the sounds of electronic dance music before sunrise on March 14. San Luis Obispo County’s various Facebook groups lit up with the sounds of complaining millennials and boomers rage typing about loud noises coming from campus.
“I’m a mile from campus and it’s 7:30 a.m. with some serious party bass rattling my windows and lots of sirens,” one person posted.
“Keep calling SLOPD,” wrote another. “Perhaps they should bill the parents, not have the taxpayers pick up the expenses for these law breakers.”
What? You don’t like the DJ-driven beats of Walker & Royce?
Isn’t that better than loud noises coming from the light pole next to your house, or students mobbing together with their blackout rage gallons through your neighborhood? Just saying. It might be time to stop typing in a blackout rage.
Take some deep breaths, center yourself, and take a chill pill. Remember your youth.
This year, only nine students needed a lift to the hospital for over-intoxication, and only one student fell into the creek. All in all, those are pretty good stats for a St. Fratty’s Day weekend!
At least two local frats were no longer frats in the city’s eyes before the big drunk party. They still exist. Just not in the city’s eyes. I’m not really sure what that means. Were they not allowed to officially celebrate St. Fratty’s Day?
On March 11, the SLO Planning Commission revoked Lambda Chi Alpha and Alpha Epsilon Pi’s conditional use permits after being very loud, drunken, and disorderly too many times. Even one of the planning commissioners said that the city’s process for dealing with bothersome frats doesn’t really do that much.
“If we revoke, you guys can still have your house, you can still meet,” Commissioner Dave Houghton said. “You can’t officially call yourselves a fraternity, but you can join the other fraternities that no longer hold a conditional use permit but still operate as fraternities.”
Lambda Chi Alpha was so concerned about the permitting issue that none of the frat boys bothered to show up to the hearing. Cal Poly’s input was also noticeably missing, as it is with most of the fraternity-based issues that come before the city. It might be the city’s No. 1 complaint when it comes to these Greek life issues.
It definitely was SLO resident Steve Walker’s.
“Where is Cal Poly? Absent from this conversation, and the city continues to bend to Cal Poly’s will,” he told commissioners. “They need to have a fraternity situation on campus.”
“We’ve consistently been told by fraternity members … that, ‘You’re not welcome in this neighborhood, you don’t belong here,’” he added.
I’m not sure that the city has a choice. Can it force Cal Poly to house all of its students on campus?
But what happens to the frats that lose their city permits? Are they still recognized by the university? The answer appears to be yes. Three frat houses that lost their permits last year—Delta Chi, Sigma Nu, and Delta Upsilon—are still listed on the university’s Greek life website under the Interfraternity Council.
I guess the only downsides are that you don’t have to pay the city thousands of dollars in permitting fees anymore, and you don’t get to “officially” host big events at the house. Unofficially, you’re golden!
Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) did have members show up to the hearing—and a rabbi, who voiced his support for the students to keep their cultural gathering space.
Their partying disturbances have diminished over the last couple of years, chapter President Joshua Pinsky told commissioners. After receiving 13 citations in one academic year, it dropped down to just two, he said. Just two, huh?
I wonder what your neighbors have to say about that. AEPi’s probably disturbed the peace more than twice.
The Jewish frat has also experienced antisemitism over the years, unfortunately, including an alleged incident that happened in February where some drunk asshats in a giant pickup truck yelled slurs at frat house residents and things got physical. Rabbi Micah Hyman of Congregation Beth David asked the commission to think about the “intense situation within our Jewish community.”
“Our support from our general community is one of fellowship and partnership, and we want to continue that as much as possible,” Hyman said.
Revoking the frat permit isn’t going to diminish the support that Jewish students receive within and from the community. And as Commissioner Eric Tolle put it, no one gets special treatment when it comes to city rules and regulations. To be human is to err and to pay for your errors.
“I understand the whole cultural place to practice your traditions and all that. I think it’s great, but at the end of the day, everyone’s treated the same,” he said. “Cal Poly doesn’t provide an on-campus space for this type of activity, so therefore, you’re subject to the city laws and ordinances.”
Ooh! Another Cal Poly dig! ∆
The Shredder might be a boomer. Send millennial vibes to shredder@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Spring Arts Annual 2026.
Do you know why it’s so difficult to respect Boomers? Because they didn’t respect their elders. Of all the generational groups, Boomers have got to be the most hypocritical. They’re were the hippy and free love generation, protested against government. But now they’re MAGA and far-right supporters. They can’t stand to see college adults cut loose and have some St. Patrick’s Day fun. Does anyone remember when the Boomers use to be fun? Me, neither.
Now Charles, clearly you haven’t done your boomer research as you would know that the second half of my generation (Gen Jones) clearly would have done jello and whiskey shotties with you! We bled into X man…c’mon.
“Complaining millennials and boomers rage typing about loud noises…”, huh? This time Gen Xers are happy to be skipped over as if we didn’t exist, which happens often. Why? Because the truth is: many of my cohort were probably already awake, 3 beers in, and dancing on their decks or patios to the rockin EDM bass! Erin go braless, indeed.
Maybe you should have thought about moving into a house near frat row before you moved in. Poly was founded in 1901, so unless you are 125 years old you should be aware what living next to a college campus would entail. Students are going to student, which means party at all hours of the night, how could you not have known that?
You know, it’s kind of like nimbyism, except you are playing in Cal Poly’s back yard.
I never had many regrets about my college career until I saw the movie “Animal House” and realized how much fun I missed by not joining a fraternity. Of course, I might now be searching for a liver transplant, or in the middle of my fourth stint in rehab. Of course, as a cranky old man these days, I can also sympathize with the neighbors, as few life forms are more obnoxious than drunks. Perhaps a solution might be to require partiers to stay inside the house, and to allow irritated neighbors to shoot at any outdoors partiers with paintball guns. The more soberly agile party animals could have their outdoor fun, the sloppy flamers could stay inside, and the angry neighbors could have a truly satisfying way to vent.
I never had many regrets about my college career until I saw the movie “Animal House” and realized how much fun I missed by not joining a fraternity. Of course, I might now be searching for a liver transplant, or in the middle of my fourth stint in rehab. Of course, as a cranky old man these days, I can also sympathize with the neighbors, as few life forms are more obnoxious than drunks. Perhaps a solution might be to require partiers to stay inside the house, and to allow irritated neighbors to shoot at loud any outdoors partiers with paintball guns. The more soberly agile party animals could have their outdoor fun, the sloppy flamers could stay inside, and the angry neighbors could have a truly satisfying way to vent.