Moorhead PSK Fraternity Linked To Second Student Death

[hoosier]

Sep 28, 2005 5:24 pm US/Central
Fraternity Linked To Second Student Death


(WCCO) For the second time in 18 months, a Minnesota State University-Moorhead fraternity has been linked to a student's death.
The body of Stillwater, Minn. student Patrick Kycia was found in the Red River Tuesday following a four-day search.
Friends said Kycia, 19, had been drinking heavily at a Phi Sigma Kappa house party before he disappeared. He was not a member of the fraternity.
Police searched the Phi Sigma Kappa house at about 5 p.m. Tuesday and were seen leaving with several items, including a case of beer and a bottle of whiskey. The search also turned up a stash of psychedelic mushrooms, and a fraternity member was arrested Wednesday.
In March 2004, Jason Reinhardt was found dead at the same house after a bout of binge drinking known as the "power hour." The power hour ritual involves drinking 21 liquor shots in 60 minutes to celebrate turning 21.
The time limit enters into the equation as once a celebrant can legally drink at midnight, he or she has only an hour or two to drink before closing time.
Reinhardt celebrated his 21st birthday with fraternity brothers at a downtown bar. He made it to 15 shots before going back to the Phi Sigma Kappa house.
Reinhardt's friends put him to bed and found him dead the next morning. Investigators said Reinhardt's blood alcohol level was .36 when he died.
"He had had so much alcohol in such a short period of time that he didn't show any signs of intoxication," said Reinhardt's mother, Ann Buchanan.
Buchanan embraced her grief by crusading against student alcohol abuse. She was stunned to learn Kycia's drinking binge happened at the same fraternity her son was associated with.
"I couldn't believe it started at the fraternity house," Buchanan said. "I just couldn't believe it."
On Tuesday, Buchanan called on the university to shut the fraternity down.
University spokesperson Doug Hamilton said there would be a campus investigation into the fraternity, and potential sanctions could include kicking the fraternity off campus. Hamilton would not comment on anything more specific.
"I cannot speak to any specific investigative or disciplinary process involving individuals," Hamilton said.
The national chapter of Phi Sigma Kappa issued a statement saying Kycia "may have attended an informal gathering" that included fraternity members and denied the members provided Kycia with drugs or alcohol.
On its Web site, Phi Sigma Kappa says its fraternity members are expected to use alcohol responsibly and not to promote underage alcohol use.
Moorhead fraternity members would not comment.
Moorhead's Phi Sigma Kappa chapter, like most fraternities at universities across the country, is an officially recognized and sanctioned student organization.
The Phi Sigma Kappa house, which is located off the Moorhead campus, is considered a private home on private property, so the fraternity has the benefits of a college affiliation without rigid college control.
There is growing pressure for action in Moorhead, however. Moorhead's mayor is calling for the fraternity to be investigated.
Buchanan, meanwhile, is demanding to know why the lessons of her son's death have been ignored.
"It appears to me they have not learned a thing," Buchanan said.