For the last few years, administrators have kept their fingers nervously crossed as alcohol-related deaths occurred at several colleges around the country. Duke has long been known for its alcohol-dependent social scene, and University leaders hoped it wouldn't take a tragedy here for students to change their risky behavior.
Now, the much-feared tragedy has hit the University. Administrators recently confirmed that Pratt junior Raheem Bath's Nov. 27 death resulted from overconsumption of alcohol.
After Bath, 20, died from pneumonia, rumors surfaced that alcohol had caused his illness, but they were never confirmed, nor was there any official attempt to raise public awareness. Following several serious incidents involving students' excessive drinking this semester, administrators now acknowledge that Bath drank too much, passed out and inhaled his own vomit, causing a fatal bacterial infection in his lungs.
"There was no intention of 'keeping this quiet' in order to cover it up," President Nan Keohane said. "In fact, as soon as we knew that we had the permission of his parents to talk about it, both people in Student Affairs and I began to talk about it."
Many administrators noted that a series of hospitalizations in the last few weeks-including one in which an inebriated student caught pneumonia by inhaling her vomit-revived conversations about excessive drinking. "I don't think it was intentional that there was going to be information withheld," said Vice President for Student Affairs Janet Dickerson. "After Raheem died, we certainly did not expect that there would be more circumstances where people were hospitalized."
But greek officials said the near-death of a second student only three months after Bath's passing raises questions about whether officials and campus leaders should have used the momentum from his death to demonstrate the dangers of alcohol abuse.
Panhellenic Council President Kate Heath said some students casually discussed rumors about Bath's death, but the tragedy did not resonate with many undergraduates. "It probably was a lesson for some and not for others, unfortunately...," the Trinity junior said. "We might have been able to maximize its lesson potential had we addressed it as what it was right away.... Maybe the greek leadership could have used it to their advantage and pulled something good out of something awful."
Phi Kappa Psi President Kevin Marchetti said administrators never explicitly confirmed to the fraternity the cause of their brother's death. "People are disturbed because we've asked specifically, and a lot of people claimed that they couldn't comment on it," the Trinity senior said, adding that determining the exact cause of Bath's death was not the fraternity's top priority last semester. "Everyone was so much more worried about planning the memorial that [we thought], 'we know enough, that's it.'"
Administrators said Phi Psi's suspension this semester was related to a recent mixer, not to Bath's death.
Administrators at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were among the first to do that in the national spotlight. After the highly publicized 1997 death of freshman fraternity pledge Scott Krueger, the university quickly began revamping its alcohol and alcohol education policies.
"What you do is tell the truth and face the music," said Robert Sales, a spokesperson for MIT. "One of the things you do is say that it's a problem and do things to make it less likely."
Almost three months after the death at Duke, University officials are starting to talk about these alcohol-related incidents openly and have begun exploring ways to prevent more of them.
Keohane, who mentioned Bath's death in confidence to the Board of Trustees in December, will include it in her formal report to the Board this week. She said she has shared some of her concerns with several parents and alumni groups.
"One [parent and alumnus] had heard of the binge drinking problems and wanted me to know that, although initially, when his daughter came to Duke, he thought this was just normal college behavior, he and his daughter had begun to see things in a very different light once the character of binge drinking at Duke, and its consequences, had become better known to them," Keohane said. "I hope that many Duke parents and students will react the same way. If so, then Raheem's death, and the medical emergencies with similar or parallel features in recent weeks that fortunately did not end in tragedy, will not have been entirely in vain."
John Burness, senior vice president for public affairs and government relations, said discussing the issue of excessive drinking is the first step to its prevention."Whether this student [had] died or not, this has been an accident waiting to happen," he said. "The accident has now happened. Let's talk."
Greg Pessin contributed to this story.
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