Organizers behind a revival of the Chi Psi fraternity on the University of Colorado’s Boulder campus say they have learned lessons from the 2004 drinking death of 18-year-old pledge Lynn “Gordie” Bailey.
Let’s hope so, CU officials said.
“It should never be lost on anyone that a young man died that day,” said CU spokesman Bronson Hilliard. “We want to make sure that death meant something.”
Chi Psi began the long process of trying to reopen its house in Boulder in August, when CU’s Interfraternity Council cleared the Tennessee-based fraternity to begin gauging interest in a return to the school.
In January, Chi Psi can begin talking to young men who may be interested in re-forming the Boulder chapter, said Marc Stine, who works for the Interfraternity Council.
The fraternity shut down in the fall of 2004, shortly after Bailey died.
Bailey had been on campus about three weeks when he and 26 other pledges were taken blindfolded into the Arapaho Roosevelt National Forest, where they were told to chug huge amounts of whiskey and wine.
The group returned to the Chi Psi house, where Bailey was left on a couch to “sleep it off.” Ten hours later, he was found dead.
Barely two weeks before, 19-year-old Colorado State University sophomore Samantha Spady was found dead in a fraternity house, also from alcohol poisoning.
Their deaths sparked reforms of alcohol policies at both universities. In 2005, the deaths also led to a schism between CU and its 15 fraternities, when the Greek organizations refused to accept the new university rules. Those rules included moving the fraternity recruiting period to spring instead of fall and the requirement that chapters have live-in advisers.
But Stine and Chi Psi’s director of education Brad Beskin said the fraternity is serious about setting up a chapter rebuilt on the highest standards of decorum.
“They are very intent on this being a model chapter, not only at Boulder but around the nation,” Stine said.
“We know we are trying to come back under the most unique circumstances,” Beskin said. “And we will treat that with the respect it deserves and develop something based on our values and principles.”
Hilliard headed up coverage of Bailey’s death as editor of the Colorado Daily newspaper in Boulder. He said he remembers the gut-wrenching candlelight vigils and the confusion and anger surrounding the student’s death.
So far, he said, CU is encouraged by the direction Chi Psi is heading in its efforts, which includes being guided by Chi Psi alumni.
“For us, that is important,” Hilliard said. “That will help build maturity and focus among its members.”
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
