<p>Following</a> incident, frat kicked off campus - The Michigan Daily</p>
<p>That’s a shame. When will these young folks learn? All it takes is one incident and your group is GONE.</p>
<p>I hope that the ignorant young man makes a full recovery.</p>
<p>It sounds like you are placing blame on the individual, not the group. Based on the article, this is still under review, and the university is holding the group responsible.</p>
<p>Of course I place the blame on the individual. He’s the underage student who drank himself sick. That’s not to say that there shouldn’t be repercussions for the group who supplied/encouraged him.</p>
<p>I’m sympathetic to the boy, though. I’ve been an ignorant, underage student who drank herself sick, thankfully not to the extent of needing a hospital.</p>
<p>Well that has to be the worst reporting to date on the face of the planet. This incident has been well discussed on campus for the better part of this week, especially after the IFC meeting. The doctor’s report said that the kid had a .59 BAC and he had to be placed into a medically induced coma. The only reason he survived is because he was on cocaine and that was keeping his heart beating. This has been confirmed as what took place. People drink and end up in the hospital on a weekly basis. That wasn’t what got them kicked off, it was the fact that they almost killed this kid. Also Psi U has had a history of issues with IFC so this was probably more of a last straw situation.</p>
<p>At what point do we put any personal accountability on the kid? I mean damn dude, just say no. Peer pressure is a lame excuse. Mob mentality is a lame excuse. Etc etc. Just stop drinking, or don’t at all. Don’t fall into whatever dumb hazing rituals they are doing.</p>
<p>Campus will be better off with less frats. If a whole house of these idiot “brothers” actually thought this was a good idea then they shouldn’t be at our university let alone running a frat house.</p>
<p>“The doctor’s report said that the kid had a .59 BAC and he had to be placed into a medically induced coma. The only reason he survived is because he was on cocaine and that was keeping his heart beating.”</p>
<p>O.O</p>
<p>The fraternity and the individual each have responsibility, however, for those of you putting more blame on a young, inexperienced freshman, than the more experienced, knowledgable, fraternity-trained (and educated not to haze like this) upperclassmen, you are sadly mistaken. Greek members are continually taught the risks and dangers of hazing and strongly warned against it. This education happens at the chapter, IFC and national levels. The fact that the leaders of this fraternity chose to pressure a pledge into drinking this much without any regard for his safety is inexcusable. In fact, there is legal precedent for the president of a chapter to be sued if any pledge or member dies under their watch, so the courts have ruled the onus is on the upperclassmen.</p>
<p>My husband and I were both in Greek like and our son was the president of a fraternity at Michigan. For those who say the pledge should “just say no”, you’ve obviously not been involved with pledging and the peer pressure that comes with earning a spot in the chapter. Even if some part of the student knows better than to follow the commands they are given by the pledge master, if everyone else is doing it and with enough egging on, even a smart kid can make a bad decision. Plus after some point when a student has drank too much, they lose all perspective on how drunk they are, and what they should be doing. It is incumbent upon the leaders of these fraternities to not put pledges in serious danger. Many fraternities use sleep deprivation and hard labor during pledge week, rather than heavy drinking. Overall, our experience with Greek life has been great - my husband’s fraternity brothers were in our wedding party 26 years ago, and they are still close friends in his life, and all very successful in their careers and lives. And his fraternity did not use heavy drinking rituals as part of its pledging program.</p>
<p>If this had happened in a dorm, would the dorm have been shut down? How about at Rice. If this occurred in a residential college, would the RC have been shut down? This incident is not isolated to fraternities, and it can happen anywhere. I agree that the individual should have stood up to peer pressure. I’m not condoning what happened,but don’t just blame the fraternities.</p>
<p>"If this had happened in a dorm, would the dorm have been shut down? "
If the dorm provided the alcohol, then yes it should have been. Do dorms provide alcohol?</p>
<p>I don’t think dorms officially buy alcohol, but I’m pretty sure that nonfraternity entities (like the residential colleges at Rice) do, but they are held to different standards. As a former fraternity member from many years ago, I still remember how we were viewed as evil despite the fact that almost everyone had a higher GPA than the university GPA. Many of us help important campus positions and contributed to our school in many ways outside the fraternity.</p>
<p>Sportsmom, I totally understand from where you are coming. My husband and I were both Greek, too, and like I said, I’ve been the stupid college kid who drank herself sick. I’m very empathetic about this boy being stupid. And like you, I am utterly BAFFLED at how a fraternity who knows what they’re risking can continue to take those risks!?</p>
<p>Ultimate responsibility, though, falls to this young man. Drinking to vomiting is dumb, but not infrequent. Drinking to a .59 while under the influence of cocaine goes waaay beyond hazing.</p>
<p>I’m okay with the fraternity being shut down and the young man being expelled. (If he even survives, poor guy.) My heart particularly goes out to his parents.</p>
<p>I couldn’t agree more with Sportsmom. It is first and foremost the fraternities responsibility to not put pressure on a Freshman to drink himself into such a state. The kid isn’t blameless but putting this on the fraterinity first is without a doubt, where the blame lies first.</p>
<p>It is very unfortunate all the way around and sadly, despite all the education and “risk management” programs, this continues to happen at universities throughout the country. </p>
<p>Regarding the liability issue, again the courts put responsibility on the president of each chapter - they can be held personally liable for situations such as these.</p>
<p>I should add…presidents can and have been held personally responsible in the deaths of members relating to hazing and/or alcohol incidents…ultimately, since most students have no money, it comes back to the parents…umbrella liability policy. I know this because it happened to a family we know at another university.</p>
<p>I’m not surprised that greek life members have higher GPAs than the university average when you take into account majors and any kind of test bank benefits.</p>
<p>Yes, the frat should be help responsible. They provided the alcohol and “forced” this student to drink himself to basically death. I’m sure this incident “can happen anywhere”, but where do you hear about it mostly and where did it happen this time? A frat. If there are practices going on inside the house that are this dangerous, it needs to be shut down. Most importantly Michigan needs to protect itself from bad publicity. That is way more important than whether or not some “brothers” can drink and hang out in a house. </p>
<p>And yes, the student that drank this much needs to be help responsible as well. Peer pressure is a lame excuse. You should know when to stop. He was obviously right in the head when he started.</p>
<p>I dont know what really happened here, but if its determined to be hazing, that would be a felony in Mich and many states, given the seriousness of injury, and pres or officers are held accountable. At Northern IL 5 officers of a fraternity are facing felony charges, where a pledge died from an alcohol ritual.</p>
<p>Well, those among us who know better will just stay away from frats. For those who take that step, they’re not going to just walk away in the middle of binging with everyone egging them on. It’s just not worth a young life to keep these places open.</p>
<p>No one cares about young lives more than I do. They might care just as much, but surely not more. I have a college aged son and six more children coming up behind him. But I don’t think it’s fair to paint all fraternities as inherently dangerous as this one.</p>
<p>My husband was never hazed and never saw anything like this in his fraternity. My sorority was so cautious not even to give a hint of hazing that pledges weren’t allowed to clean up after themselves at dinner… the actives did it for them.</p>
<p>I think this story illustrates the importance of going through rush with your eyes wide open. Does this group seem like they genuinely care about the well being of its members? Do you sense disrespect from the members? What is the group’s reputation? What is their national reputation? Do they have anti-hazing rules in place?</p>
<p>Fraternities can be great groups that encourage safe fun, scholarship, community involvement and friends for life. Or they can be full of morons with stunted maturity and a warped sense of entertainment.</p>
<p>The house is being closed for 2013-14. The national is taking this VERY seriously.</p>