<p>I think I understand the question, and I think it's a really good one, although I don't know many answers to it.</p>
<p>I can answer it from my experience, but that's from a different era. The contrast, however, may spark some responses. When I was at Yale many years ago, there were no fraternities per se, so fraternities had no role in party sponsorship. Every weekend, one or two of the residential colleges had a "mixer", which was generally a DJ and lots of beer and/or punch, open to all students and guests (and it didn't take much for random people from other colleges, especially girls from Smith or Aggie Maggie, to be "guests"). There were also college-wide parties a couple times a semester -- usually a big mixer early in the semester, and some kind of "formal" (not very) towards the end. Obviously, all of these were public and advertised, and usually cost a couple bucks to get in.</p>
<p>During the week, there were Master's Teas in the colleges, too (ours featured much more whiskey sours than tea, although tea was offered; not all were alcoholic). There were lots of parties in peoples' rooms. In my college, for a year there was a room where they had no furniture in their common room so they could have a standing Tuesday night party that attracted 60-70 people a week. That was a bit extreme, but most quads with a common room would throw a party at least once a year.</p>
<p>Various clubs also had semi-public parties -- Fence Club (something like a fraternity), the Elizabethan Club (they did serve tea), and those senior societies that let the unwashed through their doors. People would go to Mory's to hear the Whiffs, and that was essentially a rolling party (as was the Whiff tap night, when the old Whiffs would parade through campus tapping the new members, followed by a huge crowd of students, and involving quite a bit of public drinking and singing). There were always plays and concerts and art shows going on, and each of them would involve a party afterwards. In some cases, students would rent space for a large party, or "borrow" it from the university (one friend who was good at such things actually managed to throw a surprise birthday party in Harkness Tower, quite a feat of black market logistics).</p>
<p>There were lots of parties. It was fun.</p>
<p>From what I can tell of my daughter's college life (at Chicago), there are not so many big parties. The Houses throw occasional parties, which are pretty much for House members only, maybe sometimes for guests, too. The anemic frats have occasional parties, and one has a standing "bar night" one night a week. Clubs have parties a couple times a year -- drama, film, radio, Asian-American Students, etc. There is a big party during Scav Hunt, which the University seems to have reined in this year after some vandalism last year (when the party was moved indoors because it was raining). And there are a couple University-sponsored events per quarter. Other than that, it seems to be more 6-10 kids gathered in rooms, with not much dancing.</p>