LSU reinstates alcohol ban at frats and sororities after student's death
BATON ROUGE, La. -- Louisiana State University has reinstated a ban on alcohol at fraternity and sorority events more than a month after the death of a student in an alleged hazing incident.
LSU President F. King Alexander said in a letter dated Thursday that some students haven't "absorbed the severity and seriousness of the current situation."
The Advocate reported Monday that LSU had lifted the alcohol restriction. But Alexander says he reevaluated the decision after hearing "compelling stories" that some students intended to "maintain the status quo despite continued warnings about the dangers inherent in such actions."
The alcohol ban will remain in place until at least January 2018.
"I ask again that we work together in order to eradicate this dangerous undercurrent of behavior," Alexander wrote in his letter to Greek organizations.
"If you know of troubling, potentially hazardous behavior within your house, your chapter, or other student organizations, I ask that you report it now," he wrote. "Do it for yourselves. Do it for your friends. Do it for Max and the Gruver family."
Ten people were arrested last week on misdemeanor hazing charges in the death of 18-year-old Maxwell Gruver, a freshman from Roswell, Georgia, who was trying to join the Phi Delta Theta fraternity on LSU's campus. His blood-alcohol content was more than six times the legal limit for driving when he died on Sept. 14 after a night of drinking at the fraternity house.
One of the 10 suspects also faces a felony negligent homicide charge in Gruver's death. Witnesses said the student facing the felony charge singled out Gruver during a hazing ritual involving 18 to 20 pledges that night, forcing him to drink more than others, according to a police report.
The university established a "Greek Life Task Force" in the wake of Gruver's death, which will present its findings to the administration to evaluate existing policies in January, CBS Baton Rouge affiliate WAFB reports.