Zeta Psi-Tufts pledge in intensive care

[hoosier]

Zeta Psi pledge in hospital
Dean of Students investigating
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by JONATHAN GRAHAM
Daily Editorial Board
A Zeta Psi pledge was still in intensive care last night at the Tufts New England Medical Center after sustaining head injuries while drunk.
The student, freshman Sebastian Gonzalez, was injured after returning to a dorm from a party at the fraternity Thursday night. Neither the hospital nor the Dean of Students Office would comment on his current condition.
Gonzalez's parents were in Boston this weekend to be with their son. Students who attended the party at Zeta Psi reported that any time a Zeta Psi brother shrugged his shoulders, the pledges had to drink. Some said that by 11 p.m., many of the pledges were already vomiting.
Zeta Psi President Peter Schaefer, however, denied the activity. While he was not at the party, Schaefer said he had talked to many of the brothers.
"There was definitely no pledge event, and there was no hazing," he said.
But fallout from Gonzalez's injury will probably land on the shoulders of Zeta Psi, since the fraternity was likely supplying Gonzalez, a minor, with alcohol. Dean of Students Bruce Reitman said that while the investigation into the events is just starting, his office plans to examine anyone who helped serve Gonzalez alcohol.
Zeta Psi is not the only fraternity that may face pressure about hazing sometime soon. According to unconfirmed reports, a Delta Upsilon (DU) pledge has complained to the University about DU pledging activities. Both DU President Mike Ciacciarelli and Vice President Tom Mulcahy declined to comment.
The Pachyderm, the Tufts student handbook, states that University regulations prohibit all forms of hazing, including "pressuring students to drink alcohol by means of drinking games or contests" and that the "consent of participants is not seen as a valid defense."
Massachusetts State Law prohibits all forms of hazing as well, and whoever is a participant in "the crime of hazing" can be punished by up to $3,000 or a year in prison. However, the state's definition of hazing is not as strict as Tufts'.
Universities, after all, have been held responsible for what goes on in fraternities. MIT paid $6 million to the family of Scott Krueger, who died in 1997 from alcohol poisoning while pledging Phi Gamma Delta. Tufts President Larry Bacow was an administrator at MIT at the time of Krueger's death.
Yesterday, Reitman was not willing to say where Tufts investigation would be focused. "I won't know the details of that until it's done," he said. "I don't know how this will go." He said that the Dean of Students will have to examine Zeta Psi's involvement in Gonzalez's condition.
Some fraternity brothers voiced concern this weekend that Gonzalez's situation would affect how the administration deals with the fraternities in future, and that it could cause a crackdown on the Greek system.
But Reitman said that this one event will not change the administration's policy. "Ironically, [the system] was changing anyway," Reitman said. The administration has already been in the planning stages to create a new administrative position and an Office of Greek Life to deal with Greek life issues for several months. The new position, Reitman said, was created with the intended purpose of dealing with problems like this one.
The president of Tufts' Inter Greek Council, Jessica Grasso, declined to comment before speaking to Reitman.
Earlier this year, Bacow expressed concern about the current state of the Greek system at Tufts, saying that fraternities "must be more than just a place to party." He also said that fraternities "must do a better job" of cultivating fraternal values, leadership, and contributing to the community.