<p>Story in today's Tech about a freshman who fell one and a half stories from the roof of an MIT building. Unclear if it was during a hack, although I would assume it was.</p>
<p>No. Not a hack.</p>
<p>:|</p>
<p>It really makes me grouchy that the administration is probably going to use this accident as an excuse to up the penalties for students being caught in places they shouldn't be. We're big kids. We can make decisions about risk. </p>
<p>As my boyfriend's dad would say, they need to stop trying to cut our milk for us.</p>
<p><em>/rant</em></p>
<p>The big problem is not the decisions students make about risks they want to take, but the decisions the lawyers make about how much money the college will have to fork over to compensate for injuries resulting from the students' poor judgment.</p>
<p>"The discussion about creating a more stringent rooftop policy originated in part due to an accident in 1999 when an MIT freshman fell 96 feet down an unused chimney in Building 52. She landed in a pile of soot and was taken to MGH where she recovered."</p>
<p>im sorry..when i read the soot part...i started cracking up. maybe im just morbid...lol</p>
<p>"im sorry..when i read the soot part...i started cracking up. maybe im just morbid...lol"</p>
<p>I usually leave the no-youre-not-morbid-you-just-swallowed-your-foot-whole lecture to someone else, but um... last I heard the girl just very recently regained her ability to walk again. So yeah. The accident was a lot more serious than the ever-fumbling Tech-writers let on and maybe not quite so humorous in context.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The big problem is not the decisions students make about risks they want to take, but the decisions the lawyers make about how much money the college will have to fork over to compensate for injuries resulting from the students' poor judgment.
[/quote]
To my knowledge, there have only been three people who have injured themselves exploring in the past ~10-15 years -- the girl who fell recently, the girl who fell in 1999, and one student who fell and died at some time that escapes my memory (probably 1995 or earlier). Considering the number of times people explore tunnels and roofs and such every year, and the number of people who do it, this is a vanishingly small injury rate.</p>
<p>There are obviously more risky ways to behave which are Institute-approved -- I'm sure, for instance, that in fifteen years more students have been seriously injured on bicycles. Or maybe on icy patches on the sidewalk.</p>
<p>The injury rate may be small, but the injury rate bears no relationship to the payout after the suit is filed. Each injury/death could easily result in payouts of seven figures. Ideally, students would assume responsibility for their own actions and MIT wouldn't have to pay a dime to students who explore off-limits areas. But our legal system isn't perfect.</p>
<p>Are there any updates on the recent accident victims condition?</p>
<p>I heard through the grapevine that she's due to get out of the hospital tomorrowish.</p>
<p>
[quote]
the injury rate bears no relationship to the payout after the suit is filed
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yes, precisely. (Though, in theory, it bears on how negligent the Institute is.) Actually, almost the only thing that determines the payout is the skill of plaintiff's attorney, (though I imagine MIT's Senior Counsel is pretty good too).</p>
<p>Keep in mind, also, that once the students hurt themselves, they or their parents often believe MIT should have had stricter rules to disincentivize them from doing something stupid. So in some sense, insofar as litigiousness drives institute policy, the students and parents are the ones who force MIT to cut students' milk for them.</p>
<p>
[quote]
almost the only thing that determines the payout is the skill of plaintiff's attorney,
[/quote]
that and how horriffic the injury is. Even if it is the student's own fault, any jury is going to be trying to find a justification for a big award if they are looking at a brain-damaged former MIT student who goes from having a blazingly bright future to needing millions of dollars worth of institutional care for the rest of their lives. There's a saying in law "brain-damaged babies always win". It does not have anything to do with fault or responsibility.</p>
<p>Story in The Tech today. The student who fell is back attending class. She and her friends were fined. <a href="http://www-tech.mit.edu/V126/N2/brfs2.html%5B/url%5D">http://www-tech.mit.edu/V126/N2/brfs2.html</a></p>