Andreas Jeninga/The Hoya The Office of Residence Life announced a new policy that limits party registration in townhouses to four a night on Friday and Saturday.

It may have just become more difficult to find a party at Georgetown. Under a new policy, registered parties in university-owned townhouses are limited to four on Friday and Saturday nights.

The policy took effect last Friday, according to an e-mail sent to residents of Alumni Square and the university townhouses by Dimitry Vovchuk, hall director for East Campus.

“Essentially, a combination of a high number of registration requests coupled with a growing number of unregistered parties that had already taken place warranted the decision,” he said.

But many students say parties will go on regardless of the number sanctioned by university administration.

“I’m certainly not thrilled about the limit,” Steve Blaha (MSB ’04), a townhouse resident, said. “A registered party is better for the university because it keeps the parties under control, but unregistered parties go on all the time now, and limiting the number of registrations available is only going to increase those numbers.”

“It’s silly to limit the number of parties that are allowed in the townhouses,” another townhouse resident who wished to remain anonymous said. “People are going to have the parties whether they’re registered or not.”

The source added that although the townhouse’s first party of the year was not registered, the next will be, but added, “we would have had it anyway; we already ordered the keg.”

Vovchuk emphasized the importance of registration as a part of responsible partying.

“When an unregistered party is hosted, it really puts everyone at a disadvantage because the system that the university has set up is being circumvented,” he said. “The goal is to allow hall directors the opportunity to help educate party hosts with a variety of issues. Unregistered parties take that very important step out.”

He added that hosting an unregistered party creates excess trash and noise in the neighborhood, not to mention violates the student code of conduct.

Matt Huot (COL ’05) called the policy counter-productive. “How do you expect students to party responsibly?” he said. “It won’t have a big impact because kids are going to party no matter what, but it seems counter-intuitive for the administration to say we want you to party responsibly, yet we’re going to limit your capacity to do so.”

The new policy was created as a joint effort between the Office of Residence Life and the Office of Student Affairs. Its stated aim is to strike a balance between giving students freedom to enjoy their residences and keeping the neighbors happy.

“We’re looking for the right combination of quantity and responsibility,” Vovchuk explained.

The policy means that there can only be eight registered parties each weekend distributed among the 66 university townhouses. The university defines a party as a gathering of 20 or more people, or one where a half-keg of alcohol is present. As of Tuesday, 28 registration requests had been submitted by students living in townhouses for the nine available nights since the beginning of the semester, according to Residence Life.

Thus far this semester, according to Vovchuk, the number of party registrations has fluctuated from a low of one per night to a high of seven. On one weekend he received 13 registration requests. He emphasized, however, that the limitation actually allows more parties than have been registered for on the average weekend so far this semester.

Vovchuk said that, while the policy currently applies only to townhouses, he did not rule out the possibility that it could be extended to other residences in the future, limiting registered parties at on campus complexes such as Village A, Alumni Square or Henle Village.

“Extending the party limit to other complexes is something that Residence Life needs to look at right now. The e-mail was assessing and dealing with the situation at hand, when I was receiving way too many registrations for a given weekend,” he said. “Right now it’s a situation unique to the townhouses, but that conversation isn’t over.”

Many students said they feel that parties will continue to go on, whether they are registered or not. “They do now,” Bryn Gaertner (COL ’05) said. “Limiting the number of parties isn’t going to stop them from happening, whether it’s in the townhouses or places like Village A. They’ll just be unregistered parties.”