Licensing Board May Close MIT Fraternity

Members of the MIT fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) may have landed themselves in even more hot water Tuesday.

With the failure of fraternity members to appear at a Boston City Licensing Board hearing, the fraternity now faces the possibility of tough sanctions, which could include the loss of its lodging permit.

"The fraternity members showed a total lack of responsibility Tuesday," said Daniel F. Pokaski, chair of the Licensing Board. "Their behavior is very troubling to the board. We're going to take a hard line."

The Tuesday hearing stemmed from allegations that on Sept. 3, SAE served alcohol to an underage Wellesley College student who later required hospitalization. The Wellesley student had attended an informal gathering at the Boston fraternity house located at 87 Commercial Wharf. SAE members later took the student to the MetroWest Medical Center in Natick.

Pokaski downplayed the seriousness of the Wellesley incident, referring to it as "not a huge thing." However, he said the board was outraged by SAE members' absence and by additional allegations that surfaced during the hearing.

According to Pokaski, area residents reported to the board a pattern of mischief-making on the part of SAE members. The litany of allegations included public urination, dropping trash from the roof of the fraternity house onto parked cars, making loud noises late into the night and various other grievances.

Pokaski said area residents have been frustrated for some time by disturbances, and that the MIT administration should have notified the licensing board earlier about the residents' complaints.

Despite these new allegations, the main issue for the board remains the students' absence from the Tuesday hearing, Pokaski said.

While the board will consider a number of lesser sanctions at its meeting this morning, the possibility of revoking the fraternity's housing permit is not without precedent.

The board closed MIT's Phi Gamma Delta fraternity in September 1997 in the wake of the death of Scott Krueger, an 18-year-old first-year. Kreuger drank himself into a coma at a fraternity party.

While the board considers the Krueger incident to be far more serious, it may consider closing SAE given their failure to attend the meeting, Polaski said.

"When we had the Krueger incident, everyone showed up," he said. "These gentlemen don't have the courage and decency to admit they were involved. It shows a total lack of responsibility and character."

While SAE's attorney Carl King and an MIT official both attended the Tuesday hearing, student fraternity members are typically expected to attend such meetings as well, according to Pokaski.

SAE was placed on suspension by MIT on Sept. 22, effectively banning SAE members from participating in school events as a group.

The fraternity had already been placed on alcohol-free probation by MIT in response to a 1998 incident in which a prospective student was served alcohol during campus preview week. The university is currently holding separate proceedings that could lead to disciplinary action apart from any taken by the board.

SAE fraternity members could not be reached for comment yesterday.