Could Last Year’s Chaotic Ivy League be a Repeat?

While baseball, Frisbee in the Grove, and Double Decker weekend are tame springtime events found in Oxford, Phi Delta Theta’s Ivy League spring party is not.
Ivy League is an Ole Miss tradition in which Phi Delta Theta hosts a huge field party in which beer and crawfish are in large supply, and attendants dress up, or rather down, in typical “red-neck” outfits.
Though Ivy League is one of the more well-known spring parties, an incident at last year’s event may have tarnished its reputation. Sophomore Meaghan O’Conner and several others were maced by Panola County police officers while attempting to board Rebel Ride back to campus.
“We were just trying to leave and apparently so was everyone else because we ended up waiting in line for at least an hour”, said O’Conner, “then it turned into everyone pushing towards the buses when all of a sudden the policeman in front of us sprayed mace over the entire crowd, me included!”
Incidents like these are not normal at Greek events. May it be a Friday night band party or a philanthropy event; companies such as Cobra Security and Collegiate Security are there to promote order. Stephen Kirkpatrick, who works for Collegiate Security, completely disagrees that mace was used. “I believe if there were more security guards at the party, things could have been controlled”, said Kirkpatrick, “it wasn’t necessary to call the police and then on top of that have them use mace.”
Due to the lack of buses used for transportation and the location of the party being in Panola County, approximately half an hour from the Ole Miss campus, contributed to the chaos. Only when things got out of hand were officers from the Panola County Sherrif’s Office called in.
“Kappa Sigma would never let anything get that out of control”, said Jake Kronsage, a sophomore member of Kappa Sigma, “if we brought that many people out to a random field in Panola County, we would at least provide the proper transportation to get the to and from campus; and we wouldn’t run out of crawfish either!”
While opinions waver, many are still optimistic about this year’s party. “I plan to go back”, said O’Conner, “just as long as I get an apology from the officer who maced me.”
Joe Todd, a sophomore member of Phi Delta Theta, is confident that this year will not be a repeat of last year. “We have a better handle on the busing situation”, Todd said, “and the location of the party will be much closer to town than last year’s.”





· Meaghan O’Conner-Sophomore-Primary Education Major-maoconno@olemiss.edu
· Stephen Kirkpatrick-Sophomore-Homeland Security Major-slkirkpa@olemiss.edu
· Jake Kronsage-Sophomore-jrkronsh@olemiss.edu
· Joe Todd-Sophomore-(270)454-9466