The Massachusetts Institute of Technology agreed last month to pay more than $4 million to the family of a former student who died of alcohol poisoning after drinking in his fraternity house.
The outcome of the case, which focused on a university’s role in an on-campus alcohol-related death, may end two years of controversy with MIT taking partial responsibility for the tragedy.
MIT student Scott Krueger was found unconscious lying in his own vomit in September 1998 at the university’s Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house. He died in the hospital three days later. Since his death, the fraternity has been permanently kicked off campus.
In a letter to the Krueger family, MIT President Charles Vest said, “The death of Scott as a freshman living in an MIT fraternity shows that our approach to alcohol education and policy, and our freshman housing options, were inadequate.” Because MIT doesn’t have enough on-campus housing for freshmen, it is forced to support off-campus options such as fraternity and sorority houses.
The settlement, which was reached with the Krueger family on Aug. 31, calls for the university to pay the family $4.75 million and to donate $1.25 million to an MIT scholarship fund. MIT student body president Peter Shulman said the settlement will not have an adverse financial effect because the money is not coming from “student dollars” or tuition.
Were a similar incident to occur at NU, the administration could be held responsible, said Associate Director of Greek Affairs Steve Dealph.
“A personal injury lawyer will try to hold as many people accountable as possible, to get as much compensation as possible for that person,” he said.
Dealph said the lawyer could try to sue the individual chapter, its president, the social chair who coordinated the programming and the treasurer if the fraternity was involved in the purchase of alcohol. The house corporation and the national organization also could be sued.
To safeguard themselves, NU’s fraternities have stringent risk-management policies. Every Greek organization has its own policy, dictated by its national fraternity. But all of these policies are similar, said Interfraternity Council President Dustin Cook. IFC and the Panhellenic Association adopted their own versions of these policies in 1994 along with guidelines to enforce them, Dealph said.
But NU does not have its own risk- management policy per se, Dealph said.
Dealph said in the case of a serious alcohol-related accident in a fraternity, a lawyer would try to hold NU accountable by saying the university knowingly ignored illegal activity.
“We would have to show that every time the university was aware of it, we’ve dealt with it,” Dealph said. “We have a pretty good record of that here, and we’ve certainly held a number of groups accountable.”
Dealph cited Sigma Chi, a fraternity just recently removed from NU because of violations of its national policy, as an example.
NU’s Greek leaders hope programs to curb drinking and Panhel’s Resolution 2000 — the newest Greek legislation banning sororities from co-sponsoring alcoholic events at fraternity houses — will prevent a similar tragedy from occurring at NU.
“This is a sensitive subject here, and it will remain that way,” Shulman of MIT said. “The image has perpetuated, and it’s very frustrating for a lot of us here. It continues to haunt our community.”
