The death of a 19-year-old sophomore from Lebanon, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, has thrust Penn State University back into the national spotlight in a troubling way.

Timothy Piazza died during pledge night activities when he stumbled down a fraternity's basement steps, but numerous fraternity members failed to call for medical help until the next day. If they had acted sooner, they may have saved his life.Eighteen Penn State students have been charged - eight with involuntary manslaughter, including the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. The other 10 are facing more minor charges, including furnishing alcohol to minors and hazing.The university's exasperated president, Eric Barron, quickly banned the fraternity from the university and imposed new regulations on Greek organizations, including restrictions on alcohol, kegs and all-day parties.Still reeling from the Jerry Sandusky child-abuse scandal, Penn State has been attempting to get its house in order and regain the luster and cachet that the university once had among its peers.The charges against the 18 were recommended by a Centre County grand jury, which investigated the circumstances around the Feb. 2 incident. They also faulted fraternity brothers for tampering with evidence and trying to cover up the crime.The details in the case are sickening. According to testimony, surveillance footage and text messages, Piazza and other pledges had to negotiate their way through a "gantlet of drinking stations" where they drank shots of vodka, then had to guzzle a beer and drink from a wine bag before they were allowed into the basement to play beer pong, another drinking game.At some point, Piazza fell 15 feet down a flight of stairs headfirst, according to the text of one of the fraternity brothers. Piazza was carried to a couch where he was "backpacked" (books loaded into a backpack to prevent him from rolling over and choking on his own vomit).The incident is reminiscent of a December 2013 case in the Poconos where a group of 37 Baruch College students were charged in the hazing death of a pledge, Chun "Michael" Deng, 18, of the New York City area. Five of the students are charged with murder; their cases are pending in Monroe County Court.Members of the Pi Delta Psi fraternity rented a house in Tunkhannock Township, Monroe County, to conduct a hazing rite known as the "glass ceiling" for new pledges.As part of the hazing ritual, the victim was blindfolded, weighed down with a 30-pound backpack and was forced to walk through a gantlet of fraternity brothers who tackled, shoved and pushed him in an effort to take him to the ground.Deng suffered head and body injuries. Shivering and traumatized, Deng was brought into the living room, but it took an hour before he was driven to the hospital where he died from brain injuries and the delay in treatment, according to the forensics report.The first of the charged students, Ka-Wing Yuen, 25, pleaded guilty in January to conspiracy to hinder apprehension and was ordered to perform 100 hours of community service, fined $1,000 and placed on five years' probation.So why does this reckless and irresponsible behavior continue, and why do young college students subject themselves to this kind of binge-drinking?Many are on their own for the first time, in a new environment, making a new beginning, so they want to "fit in" with newfound peers. Mom and dad aren't omnipresent to keep a watchful eye on them.Some arrive at college with a drinking problem that they have hidden from family members. There is rarely a pre-admission screening process to discover such issues, so with alcohol so readily available, the problem gets worse.I did my own unscientific survey of 25 area college students, many of whom have just completed their freshman year.Almost all said they had engaged in heavy drinking at least once during the academic year to "get loose" so they appear to be more social at parties and get-togethers.By drinking, they are hoping that their newfound friends and acquaintances will find them more fun-loving and exciting. Pledging a fraternity and going through a hazing ritual, though such practices are banned at most colleges, is part of yearning to belong, they said.In addition, alcohol is the vehicle of choice for hooking up with someone of the opposite sex, maybe even finding romance. But all of this causes college students to engage in high-risk behavior, sometimes with fatal results.By Bruce Frassinelli |

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