While walking down Webster Avenue July 13, I was startled to come across a developing crime scene at Sigma Nu fraternity. In a blur of flashing lights and screaming sirens, I watched as Hanover Police and Safety and Security officers responded to an emergency call after a man broke through a window and fell onto the pavement below. Beginning with their quick response, local authorities have done an admirable job dealing with the tragedy quickly and efficiently. But now that the day's events are over, the College and Hanover Police need to wrap up the case in a fair manner, particularly when it comes to repercussions for the fraternity involved.
When I left my fraternity to head to dinner that night, I realized that something abnormal had just happened. I watched as a Safety and Security officer pulled his car into the Sig Nu parking lot, jumped out of the vehicle and broke into a jog toward the side of the house. Only five seconds later, I watched two Hanover Police cars screech around the intersection of Webster Avenue and North Main Street, barreling toward the fraternity. As I stopped to talk to some bystanders, more emergency vehicles, including an ambulance, arrived on the scene. The fast response exhibited by both Hanover Police and Safety and Security quickly became the focus of conversation.
In the hours that followed the response, however, much of the conversation on campus changed from the events and the reaction by local authorities to a debate over the incident's implications. Speculation about what sort of action the College should take ranged from minor penalties to the fraternity's derecognition. Of course, nobody knew all the facts, but given the recent scrutiny of Greek life at Dartmouth, many feared the College's response.
Now that the facts of the incident are starting to come out, it seems that Sigma Nu should not shoulder much of the blame. The man who fell from the window was a College employee who had apparently been under the influence of both marijuana and LSD with two friends. Only one of these two friends, a member of the Class of 2013 who was renting a room at the fraternity for the summer, was affiliated with the College. Since the three men are not affiliated with Sigma Nu, it would be unfair to reprimand the fraternity unless its members were negligent in their actions toward the three men, a determination that the College will need to make in the next few days.
That being said, according to the Greek Leadership Organizations and Societies handbook published on the College's website, a Greek organization maintains responsibility for College policy violations "if the organization or its officers should have foreseen yet failed to take reasonable precautions against such actions." Repercussions for failing to take these precautions range from a "loss of privileges" to derecognition. The decision lies in the College's hands.
Sigma Nu is responsible for ensuring the compliance of their residents with regard to applicable state and federal laws to the best of the organization's ability. As such, the organization has a duty to deal with known violations of these laws. It may be the case that members of the fraternity were completely unaware of what was going on in the room that they were renting out to the recent graduate. But it seems unlikely that this is the case. This incident is likely not the first time the individuals involved abused drugs. If the College does uncover any evidence of negligence on the part of Sigma Nu's officers, the College could and should punish the fraternity. Ultimately, time will tell to what degree the brotherhood should be blamed. It would be a mistake, however, to reprimand the fraternity without first a full understanding of what actions were feasible to prevent this tragedy, and whether they were taken.
