It happens yet again
 

The University of Maryland has had one hell of a terrible calendar year.

From the Washington Post:

A University of Maryland student was in critical condition at Washington Adventist Hospital this afternoon after being found unconscious inside a fraternity house shortly before 4 a.m., authorities said.

Capt. Paul Dillon, spokesman for the College Park campus police, said the 19-year-old student was not breathing and was in full cardiac arrest when paramedics arrived at the Phi Sigma Kappa house. The student, whom police did not identify, was found in a "lounge area" of the three-story, red brick, white-columned house, Dillon said.

The incident comes barely five months after another student was found dead on fraternity row, a death which was eventually linked to drug use.

In today's case, there were no outward signs of foul play, Dillon said, and it didn't appear that the student had suffered any blunt force trauma. Sources said paramedics smelled alcohol inside the fraternity house.

Prince George's police and campus officers are jointly investigating the incident. This afternoon, two county homicide detectives parked on the manicured lawn and carried two closed boxes from the house, number 7 on Fraternity Row. One of the boxes rattled with the sound of clinking glass when an investigator placed it in the car.

Many of the houses on the U-shaped Frat Row have colorful banners draped from their roofs announcing this semester's Rush Week, the period where potential fraternity members attend a number of functions in hopes of being asked to join the Greek system. Thursday night was "bid night" – when students are offered membership to house.

Students stood around Frat Row this morning and afternoon, whispering among themselves and questioning aloud what had happened. Jill Frankenfield, a 22-year-old senior, reflected that the academic year has been one of the toughest for the campus of nearly 35,000 students.

"People say that your senior year will be your best, but it's been one thing after another," Frankenfield, 22 said. "You have to wonder what's next."

In early September, another student, 20-year-old Alexander Klochkoff, was found slumped and unconscious in a bean bag on the front porch of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon house, just doors down from Phi Sigma Kappa.

Medical examiners found that intoxication from the illegal street drug GHB, or gamma hydroxybutrate, contributed to Klochkoff's death.

Also last fall, a tornado struck the campus and killed two sisters. A series of burglaries and a few sexual assaults have also occurred on or near the College Park campus since September.