At UK and many other universities, women get into cars with strangers who drive them to fraternity parties. 

Fraternities and sororities organize these driving systems with the hopes of reducing drunk driving, but the practice is largely unregulated and unsupervised.

UK Police Chief Joe Monroe showed concern for the women who get into these cars, saying he worried as a father and as a police chief. 

Police have cited drivers for overcrowding cars and for driving with open containers of alcohol. The system is riddled with possible dangers, but it is not going away. 

The practice of driving people to fraternity parties is commonplace at UK and other universities, but when a police chief expresses worry about the safety of women, like his daughter, something needs to change. 

Formalizing the system could solve some of those problems. Fraternity and sorority chapters should work with their national organizations to hold drivers accountable.

Chapters should also keep a log of who is driving, and who they are picking up. 

The anonymity of it all leaves too much room for dangerous activity, like overcrowding and driving with open containers of alcohol. 

If a driver is pulled over and cited, the fraternity should take disciplinary action against him. 

People’s lives are on the line. Fraternities and sororities have the opportunity to stop a tragedy before it happens by formalizing this system. 

Formalizing UK’s driving system should be the first step, but students across the country are participating in similar systems that pose similar dangers. 

UK Police can only do so much. They can pull over packed cars, but they cannot prevent the system as a whole. It is not illegal, but it is irresponsible. 

UK also may not be able to reform the practice. The university cannot make any changes unless someone files a formal complaint. 

So reform must come from fraternities and sororities here at UK and on a national level. Those organizations created the system, and the responsibility lies with them to make it safe. 

Monroe’s concerns about his daughter likely emulate concerns from other parents if they knew their daughters were getting into cars with strangers. 

Their concerns are justified, and those parents deserve to know their children are being kept safe.

Email [email protected]