As a psychologist and adjunct instructor who works at a small college, it is very concerning to me that the expectation seems to be growing that college officials should somehow be miraculously aware of student (and non-student!) behavior at all times, and be able to intervene and prevent behavior at all times. This concerns me for two reasons. First, it sends a message that individuals are not responsible for their own actions. Second — and I say this with seventeen years of experience under my belt — what is being asked of the college here is clearly impossible. There is simply no way, and especially now in these days of staff cuts in which college staff are increasingly overburdened and overwhelmed with work, that anyone could have known about the party or the presence of the non-college individual. Unless we become omnipotent and omniscient mind readers, it simply will never happen. If lawsuits such as these are successful, what will end up happening is the demise of the university as we know it. In my opinion, we are moving WAY too far in the direction of college responsibility for student behavior. We would have to turn colleges into prisons to exert that level of control. Thank you for allowing me a forum to express what is becoming an increasing concern for me and many others who work on college campsuses.

Carol

This is America. No one is responsible when anything bad hapens to them. Someone else is always to blame and therefore can be sued for damages. The court’s decision is completely right, for a refreshing change. If said 20-year-old had enlisted in the Armed Forces and been killed in combat, I am sure the college would have been sued for allowing military personnel near the campus at any time in the last 10 to 20 years.

It is a sad and indeed tragic situation when a young man’s life is cut short by his own stupidity, but that does not make it someone else’s fault or responsibility. I think his PARENTS should be held accountable for failing to properly educate their son about matters of ethanol consumption, so they should have to foot the bill for the college’s perfectly appropriate legal defense. Otherwise, EVERY STUDENT AT THE COLLEGE WILL BEAR THE COST OF THE LEGAL PROCEEDINGS IN HIGHER TUITION BILLS.

Fraternities–sororities—greek organizations–are a part of a racist, sexistist, elitist and alcoholic culture, all of whom should have been purged years ago. After thirty years of teaching at the university level, observing underage and legal age young adults come to class with a hang-over or in some cases outright drunk, the time has come to put this type of behavior off campus and in the hands of law enforcement. With the rise in the cost of higher education, there are too many taxpayers supporting higher education with their hard earned money to continue with this type of decadent behavior. These types of students need to either get a job or join the military where they can drink their lives away rather than be a burden to academia and those here to actually learn.

From the sounds of it, this looks like a cynical, contemptuous attempt by “parents” to cash in on the loss of their son, enabled no doubt by an equally cynical, predatory lawyer. I can only hope the lawyer didn’t graduate from the school in question. Just another example of our overly litigious society looking for scapegoats and deep pockets, and avoiding personal responsibility at every turn. Ironically, our universities keep cranking out more lawyers than we need or can use and this only feeds the monster.

When I was in college 50 years ago, the big social movement on campus was against “in loco parentis” by the school. I thought we had gotten well past that and were treating students, and nonstudents of legal age, as adults. The student was responsible for himself. The lawsuit was inappropriate: an example, if we need one, of overuse and exploitation of the legal system.