Dennis Harrison, chief of police in Fort Collins, speaks about the Samantha Spady case Friday. "I think there are a lot of people on the CSU campus who are thinking, 'That could have been me,' " he said.
http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/st...191935,00.html
The link above is to a story which details Samatha Spady's last day.
All of the Greek organizations at Colorado State have now mandated that all Greek Housing will be dry effective October 11. Additionally, the university has, at least temporarily, banned beer sales at Hughes Stadium for all CSU home football games.
Below is an edited version of a story about Sigma Pi's closing. It is from a Denver paper via Fraternal News.
Edited from the Rocky Mountain News:
Rocky Mountain News
Denver, CO
September 10, 2004
CSU SHUTTERS SIGMA PI FRATERNITY HOUSE;
DECISION FOLLOWS WOMAN'S DEATH, REPEATED VIOLATIONS
By Kevin Vaughan, Rocky Mountain News, Staff writer Sarah Langbein contributed to this report.
FORT COLLINS -- Colorado State University officials, citing repeated violations of alcohol policies, disbanded the Fort Collins chapter of Sigma Pi fraternity on Thursday.
The move came just days after a young woman died in the fraternity house after ingesting a large amount of liquor, and just hours after the national Sigma Pi office revoked the chapter's charter for unspecified violations of its "risk-management" policies.
"We felt it was serious enough that we had to take action and enforce our policies," said Mark Briscoe, executive director of the national Sigma Pi office, who spent the past several days in Fort Collins investigating Samantha Spady's death.
Although the police investigation into Spady's death has not been completed, officials from the fraternity and CSU acknowledged they had enough evidence to take the action they did.
"We believe there's a piece of responsibility there," said Anne Hudgens, executive director of campus life at CSU.
The president of the chapter, Darren Pettapiece, could not be reached for comment Thursday.
The death of Spady, a sophomore from Beatrice, Neb., marked the fourth incident involving alcohol at the fraternity in the past 15 months.
Spady was found dead Sunday in a converted bedroom on the second floor of the fraternity house.
Thursday's action was the first disbanding of a fraternity or sorority at CSU since a series of new rules governing Greek life on campus went into effect in 2002. Those rules allow alcohol in some fraternities but prohibit parties in any of the houses.
Fraternities and sororities that want to have parties are required to hold them at off-campus locations where alcohol use can be monitored.
Since the new rules went into effect, 32 violations have been reported to CSU's Greek Judicial Board. Of those, 26 were alcohol-related, and two of them involved Sigma Pi.
In one, the fraternity was sanctioned for organizing a party and serving alcohol in March. In the other, members were ticketed for a noise violation after an August party.
In addition, the university learned this week of an incident in July 2003 in which several Sigma Pi members allegedly attacked a man who mistakenly drove onto their lawn after getting lost.
(Edit: The man suffered a broken leg)
Hudgens, while declining to talk specifically about the circumstances of Spady's death, said that alcohol was the common denominator in all of the incidents.
A deposition in the civil lawsuit (brought by the injured man) paints a picture of a fraternity where alcohol was a part of life. Under questioning by an attorney for the injured man, Sigma Pi chapter adviser Brian Carnduff said it was considered OK to drink in the house - even among members under 21.
"It's preferred it's 21, but it's not really frowned upon if you're under," he said, according to a copy of the deposition obtained by the Rocky Mountain News. "It's college."
Sigma Pi can apply for reinstatement as a "colony" - or probationary chapter - at CSU in five years.
Following the national Sigma Pi organization's decision to revoke the local chapter's charter, the Greek Judicial Board recommended Thursday the university withdraw recognition of the fraternity.
The university followed the recommendation and the fraternity's Fort Collins chapter was dissolved.
Hudgens said Thursday's move reflected the context of incidents in the past 18 months. After the March episode, Sigma Pi members had to take classes on alcohol awareness and write a risk- management plan.
INFOBOX
Other houses on the outs
A look at fraternities and sororities shut down by Colorado State University officials in recent years:
In 1998, officials disbanded the Alpha Chi Omega sorority and the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity after members scrawled "I am gay" on a scarecrow on their homecoming float just days after Matthew Shepard, a gay University of Wyoming student, was tied to a fence like a scarecrow and beaten to death.
That same year, officials revoked the charter of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity after repeated alcohol violations.
In 2000, officials dissolved the Sigma Nu fraternity for hazing and repeated alcohol violations.
In 2001, officials shut down the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity for repeated alcohol violations.
Frat tragedy
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