WSU Greek Row Prohibition Fails To Avert Trouble For Some Fraternities

A cleanup of Greek row may have come too late for some Washington State University fraternities.

One fraternity was closed in October by national leaders citing ineffective alcohol control, among other problems. Early last week, another fraternity settled with two men beaten outside a fraternity house in 1996.

Now, three more WSU fraternities are being sued by a former university student who claims to have been permanently injured at a house party turned riot in 1995.

Former WSU student Angela Little filed suit in Whitman County Superior Court this month claiming a kick in the head she received at a Kappa Sigma party in February 1995 forever changed her life.

Ironically, all fraternities at WSU became officially dry this summer.

Under new policies, alcohol can no longer be served at parties.

Greek houses risk large fines if members drink at any time outside private rooms.

According to Pat Murphy, alumni adviser to Kappa Sigma for 15 years and a member of the chapter’s building board, the fraternity house where Little claims to have been injured prohibited serving alcohol during events at the time of the 1995 dance.

“We are very proactive in terms of having leading-edge alcohol education programs and very strict social policies,” he said. At the “university-sanctioned, nonalcoholic” 1995 dance, fraternity members “acted responsibly,” summoning medical help for Little, he said. The fraternity “does a lot of positive things.

“Unfortunately, accidents happen.”

But, Little’s attorney, Bryan Hershman, said alcohol was served at the party. According to Hershman, Little, a non-drinking freshman attending her first fraternity party, had barely walked through the door when she was struck in the head and “knocked cold” by the flying leg of another woman who was being swung over the crowd.

The suit asks for damages from Kappa Sigma and party co-sponsors Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Alpha Kappa Lambda, saying the fraternities failed to supervise the event which had to be broken up by police.

Little’s head injury, causing permanent memory loss and persistent migraine headaches, forced the high school cheerleader and honor student to drop out of school after her first semester, according to the lawsuit.

In the meantime, a lawyer for two men hospitalized after an October 1996 beating outside Phi Delta Theta said his clients reached a settlement this week of their lawsuit against the fraternity.

In March, WSU student Paul Thompson and former WSU student Toby Williams sued Phi Delta Theta, former President Cody Mann, former Vice President Mark Shark and fraternity member Kevin Murray, claiming the fraternity members beat them after throwing them out of a Phi Delta Theta-sponsored party.

Under terms of the settlement, Shark and Murray are released from the suit with no finding of fault or payment, according to Tim Esser, attorney for Thompson and Williams.

“Had the fraternity been forthcoming with the police and WSU investigations, I don’t think we would have included them in the suit,” Esser said.

The amount of the settlement wasn’t disclosed, but Esser said “we are very, very pleased.”

The adviser to Phi Delta Theta’s WSU chapter and local members of the fraternity’s corporate board were unaware the case had been settled.