Scanning into venues has become a norm of the digital age. Fans wield the Ticketmaster app at the gates of JPJ, and moviegoers present a QR code to enter the Violet Crown. In recent years, the University has experienced a continuation of this trend with students scanning into parties using DoorList.
Since it was introduced at the University in 2022, the DoorList app has become a staple of University nightlife, allowing students to enter fraternity parties and access bar tabs. Despite its widespread use, DoorList has stirred mixed feelings among students, who say scanning into the University’s off-Grounds social scene fosters a more secure, but woefully exclusive environment.
Founded by Class of 2023 alumnus David Roselle, DoorList is a mobile app used to schedule, host and attend events on college campuses. DoorList is primarily utilized at the University by Greek fraternities to invite specific people, and even specific sororities, to social functions. Featuring a dynamic QR code that changes every second, DoorList enables bouncers to scan attendees’ codes for admission — and deny entry to those who have not been added to the list.
Since it was put into practice at the University, the app has received both positive and negative feedback. Fourth-year College student Lauralee Weinland, for one, praised DoorList’s efficacy but acknowledged the drawbacks to using it with no exceptions.
“It's a great app — it does what it's supposed to do, but what it's supposed to do is make it difficult to attend an event that you aren't personally invited to,” Weinland said. “That can be tough.”
As a member of a sorority, Weinland said she uses DoorList multiple times a week. Since fraternities typically fill their lists with sororities, she recognized that the accessibility of parties can be slim outside the Greek system.
“It definitely makes our Greek events, fraternity parties in particular, a little more difficult to attend if you aren't in a Greek organization,” Weinland said. “It’s definitely a little more exclusive.”
However, fraternities at the University have not always been so particular about who gets into their parties. The Class of 2025 remembers a time before DoorList arrived on the social scene three years ago. As a first-year student going out, Weinland said she would receive event wristbands that were distributed by fraternities to her sorority house — a system that was not so secure.
“It was pretty easy to photocopy those wristbands to get yourself in, which was great for the social scene as a first-year, but not so good if you're trying to keep the list very tight,” Weinland said.
Having had this flexibility while she adjusted to the University party scene, Weinland noted that the rigidity of DoorList must be difficult for new students.
“I can't really imagine life as a first-year with DoorList,” Weinland said. “I can't imagine it was super easy to do much of anything, especially if you don't really have connections here. Where are you supposed to go to make them if everything is DoorListed?”
Second-year College student Will Warner echoed Weinland’s sentiment, saying that with fewer ties to upperclassmen in Greek life, first-year students struggle the most getting into DoorListed events. He said that DoorList can make the tough adjustment to college even more isolating.
“I'm from Arizona, so I knew nobody coming here,” Warner said. “It did prevent me from opportunities to meet people before rushing. Now I'm grateful for [DoorList], but I just wish there was a better way to help get first-years more acclimated to the party scene at U.Va.”
Whether the DoorList deficit of first year should be considered a rite of passage or an undue hardship depends on who you ask. Still, many of those who have undergone the rough adjustment to the system stand by the app, namely for its safety benefits. Second-year College student Kristin Tidey said that now, as an upperclassman, she appreciates the added security that comes with scanning into parties.
“Random people who don't go to U.Va. might damage something in the house or do something that they're not supposed to do,” Tidey said. “[DoorList gives fraternities] a better idea of what's going on.”
Warner, who is the risk manager for his fraternity, said that University fraternities like to vet their guests with DoorList to manage crowds and protect their property. As risk manager, he is especially interested in minimizing organizational liabilities and promoting safety, and he said that DoorList has made his job more manageable.
“It pushes people we don't know, or even potential threats, away from our events,” Warner said. “We’re just like, ‘If you don't have DoorList, leave.’”
While the app adds a “level of pretentiousness,” Warner said, he believes the risk associated with having unknown attendees at events outweighs the problem of exclusivity. Tidey agreed, saying that she thinks DoorList should remain operational at the University if it makes parties more secure.
“If [fraternities] think that it genuinely helps their parties be safer and makes sure people don't do what they don't want people to do — like breaking in, stealing things, punching holes in walls — if that is genuinely working for them, then I think they should [continue using DoorList],” Tidey said.
However, while DoorList allows fraternities to control and track who attends their events, Weinland noted that fraternities often let the guest lists grow quite large. Entire sororities populate the app as automatic invitees, and each brother in the fraternity adds several friends to the list. For Weinland, the size of the DoorList negates the safety argument.
“It is kind of ridiculous that people say it's a safety thing, but there will be 3,000 people on the DoorList,” Weinland said. “So it's like, what exactly are we accomplishing here?”
Moreover, the DoorList system, and its blind reliance on an electronic guest list, can sometimes even bar approved guests from entry. For example, DoorListed guests who arrive with a dead phone find themselves shooed away, as they are unable to present their QR code. Weinland also described an instance in which her friend from Australia could not get into a party simply because she did not have a United States phone number.
“She could not get on a DoorList even if she was invited by [fraternity] brothers,” Weinland said. “The bouncer had to turn her down even though she was personally invited … In that type of situation, it's not awesome.”
Experiences like this, Weinland said, are why she believes that the bouncers using DoorList need to use the app as more of a guide, rather than an end-all-be-all.
“Being exclusive is one thing,” Weinland said. “If you want to be invite-only, I guess everyone has the right to do that, but the fact that she was invited and could not go because of the U.S. [phone] number thing was a little tricky.”
However, while strictly adhering to the list is excessive to some, Warner pointed out that straying from using the app unconditionally can get complicated quickly.
“A group of eight people will come up, and then six of the eight of them will have DoorList,” Warner said. “Do you make an exception for just these two people? Do you make that exception for everybody? Obviously, it's not that deep — it's a [fraternity] party. But the problem with DoorList is that you kind of have to play these games.”
Risk management, attendee inconveniences and all other factors in mind, it seems the DoorList app has earned a “yes” — albeit a reserved one — from the student body. Students have their fair share of grievances with the app, but DoorList has generally won their approval nonetheless.
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