KANSAN.COM / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / THURSDAY. MAY 12. 2011 / NEWS
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KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Kim Richter, KU Medical Center associate professor of preventive medicine, middle, speaks next to Mason Ivert, executive director of Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation, back, and KU Public Safety Sgt. James Anguiano during a discussion on how to prevent alcohol deaths sponsored by the Drug Policy Forum of Kansas at the Hawk's Nest on April 9, 2009. The panel was called in response to the death of Jason Wren.
Contributed photo
this photo taken of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon house was used in the lawsuit against the fraternity. Jason Wren was found dead in the SAE house on March 8, 2009.
WREN (CONTINUED FROM 1A)
He said during security rounds on the night he wrote Wren up, he came across a group of five to 10 people who did "the whole scatter thing." Then came his encounter with Wren, who he said was standing in the corner of the hallway holding a can behind his back.
"I said, 'Dude, what do you got?' he said.
The RA said Wren told him he was holding the beer can for a friend in the restroom. The RA replied that he would have to write him up anyway. He said he thought the can was Wren's, and either way, he seemed drunk.
"I wouldn't say he was screaming at me, but his voice was definitely elevated in frustration and anger," he said. This was the second semester, so his violations were adding up. "He knew he was in a lot of trouble at that point. So that probably added to his anger."
He said he wrote up Wren only once, but heard about him from the RA assigned to his floor. He heard that Wren was a genuinely nice guy.
"It was just that, whenever he got alcohol in his system, it just made him a different person," he said, "like it does with everybody."
Wren's trouble at Oliver highlights that his problem began before drinking at SAE, but it does beg the question of why the fraternity would welcome a new pledge with that history.
Reuben Perez, director of the Student Involvement and Leadership Center, said when he got the call informing him of Wren's death, he wanted to know why SAE accepted somebody who already had been kicked out of University housing for drinking.
"You know that we rarely remove people from KU housing at all — rarely," he said. "Didn't that send a red flag in somebody's mind?"
AFTER
Shortly after Wren's death, the national SAE fraternity said in a public statement that it had closed its investigation into the chapter and found no criminal actions or negligence by the organization, the chapter or its respective members that led to the death.
"We believe this is a very unfortunate, isolated incident" it said.
But the Wren family's lawsuit said SAE correspondence between the national fraternity and its
KU chapter showed numerous violations of rules and policies regarding underage consumption of alcohol and "providing alcohol to a visibly intoxicated member" on the night of Wren's death.
The lawsuit also said that as punishment for those violations, the KU chapter was required to pay an increased risk management (insurance) premium and was strongly encouraged to implement at least one semester of alcohol-free living.
The house hosted an alcohol-free concert a month and a half after Wren's death, and Jay Wren publicly asked for SAE to become an alcohol-free fraternity in memory of his son. The fraternity did later change some alcohol regulations, but it still allows alcohol in the house.
In a deposition in the Wren lawsuit, Frank Ginocchio, the general counsel and director of risk management for the national fraternity, said that about two years before Wren's death the national fraternity considered, but voted down, a ban on alcohol
ban on alcohol consumption.
Ginocchio said he recommended the KU chapter become a dry house after Wren's death. He said he spoke directly to John Stacy, president of the KU SAE house corpo-
Alan Fischer, KU SAE president, and Chaz Rumage, organizer of the second Jason Wren Initiative and a former KU SAE officer, agreed to be interviewed for this story but backed out when Stacy, the chapter adviser, told them that after the settlement they couldn't publicly comment on Wren or the Wren Initiative, despite previous interviews with the media.
the adviser board for KU SAE, but she expected it to go further.
"Our legal counsel advised us not to comment on the Jason Wren case, or events surrounding the case," Kristin Wing, chair of the KU SAE adviser board, wrote in an email.
"If it's under the heading of Jason Wren, we don't talk about that," Stacy explained, speaking for the KU SAE chapter and its house corporation.
SAE national officials failed to respond for comment to requests for interviews.
Jay Wren said it was a mistake for him to allow his son to live in a house with drinking, and he's outspoken against underage members of any fraternity living in a house where alcohol is openly served.
"You know that we rarely remove someone from KU housing at all — rarely. Didn't that send a red flag in somebody's mind?"
REUBEN PEREZ
Director of the Student
Involvement and Leadership Cent
While the Wren family lawyer, Steve Gorny, said the settlement forbade further release of testimony in the depositions, one of his early filings quoted Ginocchio as saying SAE chose not to ban alcohol "in part because it was too harsh of a punishment and out of concern that the collegiate members would choose to rent another property and the House Corp. would lose its tenants."
"They didn't feel it was the right thing to do at the time," Ginocchio said. "I think they felt that their efforts educationally and in the memorial service would be enough."
ration and adviser to the chapter.
With an undisclosed amount of damages at stake, he no longer criticizes SAE, aside from his desire to have SAE become an alcohol-free house.
SAE did commit to hosting the Jason Wren Initiative for six years, including the two already past, according to Kristin Wing, chair of
"The contract with SAE said that
it didn't allow underage drinking in the house," he said in an email, "and I believe they are now enforcing that clause as there were many students expelled out of the house last spring. I'm very pleased to see this change."
"It's my hope that SAE KU continues to carry on this initiative and that the house decides to eventually one day be dry and thrive, alcohol free," he wrote.
He also said he was pleased that SAE was continuing the Jason Wren Initiative.
Despite the house's educational efforts, KU SAF was stued again.
Just six days before the debut of the Jason Wren Initiative, the national SAE fraternity said its KU chapter violated alcohol policies, first by buying alcohol with chapter
funds, then by supplying it to underage pledges. As a result, 22 active members were expelled from the house.
NO UNIVERSITY PUNISHMENT
A young man died after a night of too much drinking when no one in the SAE house called for help.
Within a month, the university he attended shut down the chapter for at least five years. Members had less than two weeks to vacate the SAE house.
When you telephone the house now, you hear this: "The number you have dialed is not in service."
But that student wasn't Jason Wren. His name was George Dcdisnes. He attended Cornell University and died in February.
Officials from both Cornell and the University of Kansas caution against direct comparisons, given the differences — the University of Kansas is public. Cornell is private; Kansas is in the Midwest. Cornell is an Ivy League school in New York.
Travis Apgar, associate dean of students at Cornell, said in an email that Cornell SAE was in a school-owned house, but that is not what allowed the university to ban them for five years. Rather, Cornell uses a recognition policy with fraternities. Greek houses recognized as university organizations are subject to Cornell rules and punishment when rules are broken — whether they are on-campus or off-campus, in a university-owned house or otherwise.
The University of Kansas has no such policy. All Greek houses at the University are off-campus on private property. Many, such as SAE, are owned by a corporation board that oversees the chapter.
From the University's perspective, a fraternity is simply one of the 637 student organizations registered. It can only face punishment for things that happen at its official events. Hazing is the only violation the University can look at when it's off-campus.
The University investigated SAE for hazing but did not impose sanctions.
"The other factor that is significant to the discussion is whether or not it was an official function," Marles Roney, vice provost for student success, said.
Days before any event, a Greek chapter must submit a form to the University, specifying a guest list, availability of alcohol, security and safe transportation. SAE did not file
In the two years since Wren's death:
wren's family sued the KU SAE chapter, 10 of its members, the corporation board that owns the house and the national SAE fraternity. The lawsuit was settled last week and the settlement forbids either side from disclosing details, such as the amount of money awarded to the Wrons.
The tragedy that began with Jason's death continued with the suicides of his younger sister and mother. His older sister and father are the only living immediate family members.
Lawrence police investigated but filed no criminal charges. The University investigated for possible hazing but didn't punish the chapter. The national fraternity investigated but said it didn't find evidence of criminal actions, while the Wren family lawsuit insisted that it did.
The KU SAE chapter agreed to host the Jason Wren Initiative for six years. It's an annual program where speakers discuss alcohol abuse. But six days before the first one in April 2010, the national SAE fraternity busted its KU chapter for supplying its underage members with alcohol and expelled 22 active members.
The University has changed its policies: it now notifies parents when students have alcohol- or drug-related violations, requires incoming students under 22 to complete an online alcohol education course before they can enroll, eliminates campus chalking by bars and others who are not registered with the University, has an amnesty policy for underage students that allows them to avoid punishment for drinking when they call for help and introduced a new responsible-drinking campaign for students.
The joint alcohol policy of the KU Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Association — the umbrella organizations for most KU Greek chapters — remains unchanged.
such a form for the night of Wren's death, so the University didn't consider it an official function.
"Unfortunately, the media — back when this hit — didn't care to know the difference between a registered chapter event and a bunch of students hanging out," said Reuben Perez, director of the Student Involvement and Leadership Center, which oversees the Greek Life office. "That particular night, most of the chapter wasn't even present."
Roney said that if a fraternity didn't file the form for a planned event, the University could still investigate whether the event appeared to be sponsored by the fraternity — and therefore, an official function subject to rules.
"I know, in the eyes of the world, it was like we were trying to cover something" he said.
"Everything we were able to learn about what happened that night at SAE was that there was no official function going on," she said. "It was just an individual or two, sitting around drinking."
Although Wren did not die during an official function, in January 2010 then-IFC president Jake Droge told The Kansan changes
Amy Long, associate director of the Student Involvement and Leadership Center, said Monday the changes made were only grammatical in nature.
"The document is currently under review for the future, as is good practice, and we anticipate changes in the near future," she wrote in an email.
J. M. Angotti, IFC vice president of risk management, said in a statement, "Both IFC / PHA councils and the advisors understand that the Joint Alcohol Policy needs to be changed and are currently working to re-write the document."
As late as a month ago, the posted policy was dated 2007. After officials of both organizations were questioned for this story about promised changes, a new policy was posted online and backdated to March 23, 2010.
were being made to the Intrafraternity Council and Panhellenic's joint alcohol policy. But no substantial changes have been made.
He said that IFC and PHA officers want it done before the end of
SEE WREN ON PAGE 6A
A 2005 report by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism reported that there are:
1,700 deaths, 500,000 injuries,
600,000 assaults and more than 700,000
sexual assaults of U.S. college students each year related to alcohol.
KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Several hundred students and family friends gather in front of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon house in 2009. The fraternity held a memorial service for Jason Wren, then a freshman from Littleton, Colo., who was found dead in his bedroom on March 9, 2009.