I wonder if the University administrator is covered under a Directors and Officers liability policy. If so, the defense costs are included within their limits (unlike a General Liability policy where defense costs are in addition to the limit), and the policy is much more limited in what it covers (e.g. no explicit duty to defend the insured, excludes bodily injury and property damage, etc.).

ETA: I just re-read the article. Is there a university admin. who is being sued by the fraternity? It looks like there's one who's suing Rolling Stone...

Good question. Usually those policies are to protect the schools, but to be honest, I've never had to drill down to that answer before.

The complaint does not name anyone connected with the university as a defendant. The defendants are Rolling Stone LLC, its sole shareholder Wenner Media LLC, Wenner Media's sole shareholder Straight Arrow Publications LLC, and the author.

I wonder if there was a strategic reason for not suing the university or any administrators, or if they simply didn't feel as good about potential claims against it.