The Boston Licensing Board has scheduled a hearing for October 26 on charges that an underage Wellesley College freshman was served alcohol at an informal party at the Beacon Street fraternity house of the MIT chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
MIT Campus Police investigated the September 2-3 incident and reported its findings to the Office of the Dean of Students and Undergraduate Education (ODSUE). Shortly after it received the police report, ODSUE suspended SAE on September 22 while it continued the investigation. The fraternity was supposedly alcohol-free as a result of sanctions from a 1998 incident.
The suspended fraternity is barred from conducting activities as an organization (other than chapter or house meetings) and from participating in any Institute programs or activities. This means that SAE may not plan or conduct any social activities at its house or at any other location, nor may it participate as a fraternity in any MIT-sponsored or organized programs such as intramural sports. Members of the fraternity are not barred from participating in MIT programs, but they may not do so while representing SAE.
The Wellesley College freshman was among eight students from the college who traveled to Boston by public transportation on September 2 to attend the party. They arrived about midnight and left about 1:30am on September 3.
Members of the fraternity drove six of the Wellesley students--all freshmen--back to their dormitory. Her companions asked Wellesley College Campus Police for assistance and she was taken by ambulance to Metro West Medical Center in Natick.
In addition to the alcohol violation, Boston police cited the fraternity for failing to post its dormitory license and having an unsecured stair railing.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on October 20, 1999.
