Last week, Darlene Krueger filed a suit against Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and its officers -- three years after her son Scott drank himself to death during his freshman fall fraternity initiation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Earlier last month, MIT avoided a similar suit when President Charles Vest apologized publicly to the Krueger family, promising to pay $4.75 million to the family as well as contributing $1.25 million to establish scholarships in Scott's memory.
"This is not about money, this is about accountability," the Kruegers' attorney, Bradley M. Henry, told the press after the Kruegers filed the suit.
The family wants "all persons responsible to be held accountable," he continued. "No one has forgotten the fraternity's role. The fraternity, unlike MIT, took no step forward to resolve the issue with the Kruegers."
According to MIT Interfraternity Council Recruitment Chair Dakus Gunn '01, many upperclassmen are "sick of hearing about the different trials and punishments."
He said fraternities, sororities and independent residential houses at MIT have been doing everything they can do to fix the system.
"I do think there's a large sense of unfairness," he said, explaining that the current Greek system is much different from its predecessors five to 10 years ago. "We feel that a lot of people have paid the price."
But even though the case may be tired in the eyes of some members of the MIT community, there is no doubt that Scott Krueger's death three years ago brought significant changes -- both at MIT and elsewhere.
Since Sept. 1997, MIT disbanded Phi Gamma Delta and revoked the diploma of Charles Yoo '98, who was Krueger's pledge trainer the night he died. The institute also revised the way it handles alcohol violations and created new guidelines for freshman housing -- which will be implemented within the next two years.
Gunn said that over the past few years the Greek system has changed the way it operates. Many of the houses have chosen to go dry, which he called "unprecedented." Also, Gunn said there used to be large parties with more than 1,000 people.
"The size of parties is going down," he said. "The social atmosphere has definitely changed.
However, Gunn said administration is not working to dismantle the Greek system, but to change it -- partially in response to the Krueger death.
In a Sept. 2000 letter to the Krueger family, Vest wrote, "Scott's death galvanized us to action. It impelled us to greatly intensify our consideration and accelerate our actions with regard to alcohol, our housing system and other issues of student life and learning."
Director of MIT's News Office Kenneth Campbell explained to The Dartmouth that the institute had been considering changes before Scott's death.
"It's been building, but this was certainly the immediate driving force," he said.
Gunn said one noticeable change this year is that a lot of parents called the IFC office and Greek houses directly, asking questions about options for their incoming freshmen. He also said this year freshmen took longer to decide whether to join a house.
"I think the black-and-white attitude has turned into much more of a gray area," he said, referring to the process of choosing a residential option.
According to Campbell, MIT freshmen stay in temporary housing for their first week on campus. During this period before the start of their first year of classes, they rush fraternities, sororities and independent living groups. MIT's Greek system houses one-third of each incoming class.
Campbell said under the current system, each freshman who wants to live in on-campus dormitories is guaranteed a room.
However, starting in 2002, MIT's traditional housing system will change, and all freshmen will be required to live on campus for their first year.
This system is vastly different from Dartmouth's. At Dartmouth, freshmen are not allowed to attend fraternity and sorority parties during the Fall term, and starting for the Class of 2004, students will not be able to rush until their sophomore winters.
Even at Dartmouth -- where there are more beds than at MIT -- the issue of pushing back rush has become an issue since it limits the number of students who can live in Greek houses.
At MIT, where the first residential options for students were in fraternity houses, and where the Greek system is a rich tradition, this problem is even more pronounced.
"The Greek system started here about five years after we opened our doors," Campbell said. Currently, the institute has 29 fraternities, six sororities and four independent living groups.
Gunn explained that the Greek and independent living system plays a big role in the campus' advising network -- especially for new students.
He said a lot of MIT freshmen have never failed a class and are crestfallen when they do their first term. In addition to scholarship chairs and new member educators, Greek houses have people delegated to advise freshmen on academics.
He also said Greek houses provide most of the social options on campus as well as providing intramural sports and community service opportunities.
"In dormitories, that network is not necessarily there because they have so many students to take care of," he said.
Campbell similarly said the Greek and independent living system at MIT has significant advantages. He described fraternities, sororities and independent living groups as small "supportive environments."
However, he and Gunn said they knew that changes in the system were necessary.
Campbell explained that the switch to housing all freshmen in dorms will be possible in the near future because the institute received a $20 million gift from a graduate to build a new dorm. Construction will be finished by 2002.