[exlurker]

A couple of items from the coverage by a CBS station in Colorado (I like the quote about taking Ms Spady’s death “very seriously,” but that’s probably because way down deep I’m a bad person):


. . . early-morning "Rise and Ralph" booze parties that came one year after a student drinking death prompted a campus-wide crackdown. . . .

Mark Koepsell, CSU's director of Greek life, called the incident a "widespread violation of policy." In an e-mail to fraternity and sorority presidents, he warned that "the Greeks at CSU will not survive another negative incident."

School officials said members of the societies drank alcohol at several fraternity houses and private homes at about 5 a.m. on Sept. 1 to celebrate the end of sorority recruiting.

The parties came about a year after Samantha Spady, 19, a sophomore from Beatrice, Neb., died of alcohol poisoning on Sept. 5, 2004.

Her death sparked reforms aimed reducing alcohol abuse at CSU, and the Greek societies banned alcohol in their 17 houses.

. . . "Rise and Ralph" is a long-standing tradition, said sophomores Nichole Borman and Elizabeth Reider, who said they participated in it last year.

"We wake up at 5, and we just go out and drink and go to classes drunk," Reider said.

Borman said it was a coincidence the parties took place near the anniversary of Spady's death.

"We would never drink to remember Samantha Spady," Borman said. "We all took (her death) very seriously."

The entire story:

http://cbs4denver.com/topstories/loc...252103212.html