Alpha Phi dies of alcohol poisioning at SDSU
 

I can't find any news stories on it yet, but obviously everyone in the SDSU greek community already knows.

This is just what I heard through the grapevine, <edit>. Her name was Jenny.

Obviously this is very saddening... <edit>

<edit>She was 18.

Because the SDSU greek community needs more bad events...

Has her name been publicly released? If not, you don't have any business posting it here.

Your implied accusations towards her sisters are unnecessary and wrong when we don't know ANY of the facts or background.

I didn't accuse her sisters, I just said I was WONDERING where they were. It just seems like someone, even a random person, would have seen how drunk she was at some point and done something about it. If she was found alone in her dorm room, I could understand, but she was found in a crowded fraternity house.

As for action being taken, she was 18 and it occured at a fraternity house, so I was more or less reffering to that.

I am not sure if her name has been publicly released, but like I said, pretty much everyone knows about it. If you really want me to delete her name, I will, but I don't see what the difference is.

Well, if she was 18 (therefore under the legal drinking age) and died in someone's house due to alcohol poisoning...first of all, I'd assume they'd try to track down who provided her with the alcohol to begin with. That person could certainly be charged with a crime.

From there on, what action could be taken would depend on the exact facts/circumstances surrounding the incident. I would say that it doesn't bode well for <EDIT>- generally, an incident like this will have people calling for someone's head.

Just so we're clear here, she was at a fraternity house, yet her sisters should have stopped it? Do the sisters live with the fraternity? I don't see the connection, maybe I'm missing something?

Personally, I think her name should be removed from your post. I don't think it's your place to say who it was. Jenny is not a super common name, so my guess is it'd not be too hard to figure out who it was.

:confused: :confused: How is the #1 or #2 (alternating with Jessica, depending on the year) name of the 80's not supercommon?

:confused:

In the span of less than a minute, I can easily rattle off at least 2 dozen Jennys that I know personally and encounter on a regular basis.

I advise a chapter that has less than 40 members, and there are multiple Jennys in that house.

I'd venture a guess that Jenny (or Jen or Jennifer) is one of the most common names out there.

That was my thought.

Ok, there's this article now with a name released and it's not a Jenny
NBC San Diego

So, were there two deaths or was the OP just wrong?


ETA: And on an unrelated note, at what point will female college students stop being called co-eds? It's a stupid name.

The Alpha Phi website lists the only "Poliakoff" as Jenny. Maybe Shirley is her legal name, and she goes by Jenny (middle name or something)? Or it could be her biological sister who just joined and hasn't been added yet. :confused:

Or possibly not an Alpha Phi? She could be a sister of Jenny or whatever.

*shrug* I'm not really digging around their website so whatever.

If this was greek related, I'm going to say that SDSU loses their entire Greek system like... tomorrow.

I'd guess that she goes by Jenny. (Perhaps she was named after a relative or something, and goes by her middle name.) Note - this is just my guess and not a statement of fact in any way shape or form.

Shirley would certainly be a far less common name for a 19 year old girl than Jenny though, that's for sure.

How sad that her brother is the one who found her - it would still be sad for him to lose his sister either way, of course, but to find her in that condition would be awful.

Does the victim's name need to be removed at this point? I'm not sure what the status of this story is, is this information available to the general public? Has her family been informed?

If those two things have happened, I don't see what purpose would be served in deleting the name from this thread. If not, it shouldn't be here.

Does anyone know?

The story has broken, and the name has been released.

Thanks.

Yeah, it's only on the San Diego news, but it is public information now.

I just think that Jenny is rare. I've known tons of Jens and Jennifers, but very few Jennys (at least since leaving grade school). I think that since she supposedly went by Jenny and not Jennifer makes it much less common. Maybe it's different in other parts of the country though, since moving here two months ago, I've met two Jennys, but besides that I've only known one other in my life that I can think of.

Regardless, I think that until the story broke, her name shouldn't have been released.

My sorority alone had multiple Jens, Jennys, Jenns, etc. No one went by Jennifer. And to top it off, some were called by multiple versions of the above.

I agree though that the name should not have been released earlier.

(Of course we had 6 Stephanies too.)

According to the article, she was found Sunday morning in her bedroom (off campus apartment) after she came home late Saturday night with her friends.

Very true.

So does anyone know if she was truly an Alpha Phi or not?

*edit* I retract my statement, I was wrong -- she was found at her apartment. Somehow <edit> has been mixed into this but I'm not sure what the connection is yet.

As for the girl's name, everyone I know knew her as Jenny, but maybe her legal name is Shirley.

And yes, she is an Alpha Phi. http://ilovealphaphi.com/members.html

Has <edit> been officially linked to this situation?

If so, and I don't think we know for sure yet, this will be another situation of underage drinking and the chapter will likely be in serious trouble.

Of course IF is a very big word. Let's not fry the chapter yet.

Being in her own apartment (no mention of roommates) may answer the question of why nobody was there to help.

Sadly, another possible (I say possible because the coroner has only said alcohol may be a factor if I remember the article correctly) alcohol related death in the Greek world.

Obviously, more and updated information is needed.

The article as it was orginally posted did not contain the info that it now contains.

I loooove <not the sarcasm in my voice> how you "retract saying anything against <edit>" but you have not yet apologized to Alpha Phi for saying her sisters essentially left her to die.

Don't know what you have against Alpha Phi but certainly you couldn't wait to come and post about this young woman's death before you had your facts straight. Or from what it now appears any facts at all.

Perhaps she was at a party earlier in the evening, which is how those rumors started. According to the article (which we don't even know has all the facts straight yet - the truth tends to trickle out in these situations as investigations occur), she had been at a few different social events that evening. Which is fairly common for college students, but also makes it more difficult for anyone to really have an idea of how much alcohol she consumed. :(

And, of course, even though she was out for an evening, we don't know that she was accompanied by sisters. Sure, many sorority sisters tend to go out in groups, but we all have nights where we go out in mixed groups and not just with our chapter sisters.

If she was party hopping and perhaps not with the same group of friends all night (which is not unusual and not necessarily a "bad" thing), people may not have fully realized that she had consumed a dangerous amount of alcohol. If you go to party A with Susie and Heather, and then decide to go to from there to party B with Stephanie and Vickie, it makes it harder for your friends (who are likely drinking themselves) to keep track of you. I'm using this as a general example of something that happens all the time, not saying this is specifically how her night went. I know I did stuff like that in undergrad, and never even gave a thought to the potential risk involved. Thankfully I never had to deal personally with a tragic circumstance like this, but looking back its not too hard to see where things could have taken a bad turn.

I do feel terrible for her family, her friends, and her sisters, and hope that they are able to get through this tragic loss. :(

[quote=Aphigal;1442917]WHOA WHOA WHOA, I don't have anything against Alpha Phi, and I never said her sisters left her to die. With the information I had yesterday, it seemed sketchy, but now it doesn't.

Wow I swear, people on this board get waaaay too touchy. To assume I have something against Alpha Phi just because I posted a very relevant news story is pretty ridiculous. Chill out please.

On a different note, there is a news video here: http://www.cbs8.com/

Judging from your first post, it really did seem like you were implying that her sisters didn't care because they were nowhere to be found. Aphigal had every right to respond to you the way she did.

Considering the tragedy of the situation, you really shouldn't tell people to chill out just because you don't like how they're replying to you. Just suck it up and accept the fact that you probably made a poor choice in reporting it when you didn't have your facts straight and move on.

K I didn't have my facts straight, the end.

PS: Everyone should note that reading into "implied" messages on the internet is going to get you nowhere. What you think a person meant is not always what they intended, ESPECIALLY on a message board.

I totally didn't take her first post that way at all, though perhaps it could have been worded differently to get that point across. I can see where someone who is an Alpha Phi might read more into the post than what I suspect the OP intended (I might have done the same thing myself if it had been Alpha Gam instead - lots of us tend to be more sensitive to what we perceive as criticism of our own organization/sisters).

But, as a somewhat neutral bystander, I didn't get the feeling that the OP meant her original post as an indictment of the Alpha Phi sisters or that she had some sort of hatred for Alpha Phi - more the type of frustration that one might vent in that sort of situation, when thinking about things that anyone could have done differently to prevent the tragedy.

THANK YOU Susan! Exactly.

Anyway can we get back to the topic instead of picking apart my words? That would be great.

It seems like SDSU has a lot of alcohol poisioning/accident deaths occur... the school seems to turn a blind eye, and I really think students (not just greeks) need more education on binge drinking dangers.

Then please, in the future, don't post about something to serious without having the facts. Unless you knew her directly, which it doesn't appear that you did, you were just posting rumors and gossip. Obviously you can see now how that tends to turn out.

Agreed, and let me add to that -- if someone ever suspects inaccuracies/rumors being posted, please contact me ASAP so I can remove the offending material. I realize it's not necessarily against the TOS, but we want GC to do more good than harm, right?

ETA:

Pursuant to a very reasonable request, I have gone through this thread and removed just about any fact which was either known to be false, or was at this juncture only a rumor. As a matter of policy, please refrain from posting things in serious threads such as this unless you know those things to be true.

I will try to stay on top of things, but if anyone sees anything which is either not true or at this point unsubstantiated, please inform me ASAP. Let's just make sure GC doesn't get any rumors started which may end up in investigations/consequences for innocent parties.

Thanks.

It seems like SDSU has a lot of alcohol poisioning/accident deaths occur... the school seems to turn a blind eye, and I really think students (not just greeks) need more education on binge drinking dangers.[/quote]


Does the school really turn a blind eye or is there just a limit to what they can reasonably do to prevent students from willingly participating in alcohol abuse? ( I am not speaking about this particular individual. The local news has only reported that the death is under investigation. )
The school has over 25K undergrads...most are well over 21, and it's primarily a commuter campus. Students who live in the dorms tend to be younger, but they don't usually live there for more than a year or two. A very small percentage of students actually live in greek housing at SDSU...it's far more popular to live in off campus apts, mini-dorms or out at the beach. SDSUChelle, do you know if all new students must participate in the substance abuse prevention program or just the greeks?

I'm terribly sad for this young woman, her family and Alpha Phi. Alpha Phi at SDSU has an excellent reputation.

To my knowledge only greeks participate in substance abuse prevention programs, but I never lived in the dorms so I don't know if they are required to also. However, when I was a new member with ADPi, I honestly can't remember being required to attend any type of event centered around substance abuse... then again I could have missed it.

Since SDSU is such a commuter campus, it seems important to educate ALL students on the dangers of binge drinking... even if it's as simple as putting more articles in the Daily Aztec, holding rallies, putting up posters... whatever. It's not just the dorm kids who drink a lot, but a lot of commuters come to the area on the weekends looking for parties.

*edit* The Daily Aztec has a new article about Jenny's death: http://media.www.thedailyaztec.com/m...-2897997.shtml. They're reporting that she had attended Alpha Phi's formal on Saturday night before she died.

This is my first time on GreekChat, but I was searching for Jenny's name on google and came upon this site. I am go to SDSU, and am in another sorority here at state. I have a few friends who are in APhi, who live in Jenny's apartment complex, and they have filled me in on what really happened earlier that day/night of her death.
<EDIT> linked to the story because they had their annual <EDIT> , where Jenny had been drinking <EDIT>. Later that evening <EDIT>, and after she had sobered up, she thought it would be alright to <EDIT> continue drinking at the dance. When she got back to her apartment with her friends she continued to drink, and she had apparently gotten too drunk <EDIT>. The next morning my friends woke up to Jenny's brother screaming about how she was blue and stiff. She was long gone, no ambulence or fire trucks came, they just took her away because it was far too late to revive her.
This is just what I have heard from my friends, the autopsy results were supposed to be in by yesterday, but we'll see when they are actually released to find out what the real reason of her death was.
Anyway, it's a horribly tragic occurence and it has affected everyone in the Greek system here at SDSU.

Uh Kevin? Can you take some sort of action on the post above mine?

queenofpink, I know that you're just trying to keep everybody informed, but please take note of the moderator's post. Whether or not what you say is true, I think it's a bad idea to say that "she did this and that" if you can't provide the facts to back you up.

Just a thought.

OTW:

I'm on the case :)

Only 19. That's just really sad.

What a horrible, horrible tragedy. Its a shame that most of this thread has been dedicated to "he said/she said" bickering. As opposed to focusing on terrible event that took place, and the wonderful person the deceased was.

One has to recognize the efforts of the GC moderators who have been keeping this thread focused on facts. There are a lot of rumors circulating, and it takes effort to get through the BS. We certainly had to sift through a lot when doing our article on this tragic incident.

My heart goes out to the friends and family who knew this young lady, and all those who posted messages on my blog and this board.