A Campus Mourns a Frat Death
New Orleans College Struggles With Fatal Student Drinking

By Christopher Cooper
New York Times Service

NEW ORLEANSThey came in swarrns in their Jeep
Wranglers and sports cars to the funeral home, so unschooled in the
conventions of death th4t many did not know how to dress. Louisiana
State University offers few occasions that require a navy suit.

Indeed, many in the crowd may never have been to a funeral
home. Certainly few had ever buried a contemporary.

It generally takes people years to drink themselves into the
grave, but Benjamin Dayries Wynne, 20, to whom the young people
were paying their last respects and whose funeral was held here
Wednesday, accomplished that in a single evening. He died Monday
night after drinking enough to put him six tirnes over Louisiana's legal
limit for intoxication.

Just before his death, Mr. Wynne had received a pledge pin
from the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at LSU. University officials
said it was traditional for fraternity members to get a little drunk on
pledge night.

But Mr. Wynne and his fellow fraternity meinbers got more
than a little drunk, officials said.

They said that early on Monday evening the men from Sigma
Alpha Epsilon were drinking heavily at an offcarnpus party in Baton
Rouge befote heading to Murphy's Bar, where Jason Griffin, the
fraternity president, has a bartending job.

At the bar, the officials said, the group continued to drink
heavily, ordering pitcher after pitcher of a highpowered concoction
called Three Wise Men, made from equal parts of 151. proof rum,
Crown Royal whisky and Jaegermeister, a liqueur.

Witnesses said many of the young rnen iirere so drunk by
midnight that they could not walk. Some of them had to be shuttled by
shopping cart into waiting cars. On the group's return to their
fraternity house, someone called the campus police. When the
authorities arrived shortly after midnight, they found nearly two dozen
of the men passed out; four, including Mr. Wynne, were hospitalized.

One of them, Donald Hunt, 21, remained in the hospital
Wednesday. He was reported in stable condition. The other two were
released.

At the funeral home Mr. Wynne's parents stayed near his open
coffin. while more than 200 people paid their respects.

Peggy Wilson, a family friend and New Orleans councilwoman,
said of the parents, "They're just devastated. " She added: "You hear
about something like this, and yw think, how can children . today be
that stupid? But the truth is, they've always been stupid. They get
together, and they egg each other on. It could happen to any one of
us."

Among the floral tributes was a lavish spray from the "Brothers
of Sigma Alpha Epsilon."

Mr. Wynne's death comes at a time when the university has
tightened its regulations on liquor. Alcohol is banned at most on
campus events and forbidden at fraternity socials.

The dean of students at LSU, Thomas Risch, said he had
searched the Sigma house just a few hours before the pledge party
returned.

"They were clean," he said. "I'd like to tell you there's a way
to prevent deaths lilke this. There isn't." Mr. Risch continued: "The
individuals who want to drink heavily also tend to gravitate toward the
fratemities. But rd say the fraternity problem is a lot smaller than it
used to be."

The fraternity has been shut temporarily by its national
organization.

Mr. Risch said it was a neverending struggle to keep a campus
of 28,000 students swept clean of hquor in a state that is known for
letting the good times roll.
"People celebrate here," he said.

He also said the university was rethinking its policy of banning
alcohol at events on the campus because, he said "The thinking is,
'Maybe we should try to control the circumstances under which this
sort of activity goes on.' "

He added, '''We can't very well do that if all the drinking is
being done offcampus."

Mr. Risch vigorously denied that LSU bred problem drinkers to
a greater extent than any other large American university. But he said
that drinking, especially among young Soathern men, might be etched
into the regional ethos to some extent. "From my perspective," he
said, "our males do appear to grow up slowly."