PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The University of Pennsylvania has banned alcohol at undergraduate campus parties after a partygoer died at a fraternity house.
The ban, expected to last at least until a student-faculty task force at the Ivy League school takes up the issue in about six weeks, applies to registered campus parties, typically those hosted by fraternities and attended by nonmembers.The ban follows the death last weekend of alumnus Michael Tobin, 26, of Pittsford, N.Y. He was found dead outside the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house, where he was a member, and apparently fell from a balcony after a night of heavy drinking at a reunion party.
Besides the alcohol ban, Phi Gamma Delta has been suspended by its national organization, University President Judith Rodin and Provost Robert Barchi said in a letter announcing the ban on Wednesday. About 25 percent of Penn's 20,000 undergraduates belong to 49 campus fraternities and sororities.