ABSTRACT
On Friday, September 26th, 1997, the brothers of Phi Gamma Delta (Fiji) fraternity at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) engaged in a common ritual found throughout collegiate “Greek” organizations; freshmen pledges were paired with their “big brother” who would, among other things, guide the new member as a special mentor and friend. The occasion was celebrated, as are most events in fraternity life, with the consumption of alcohol. It was “Animal House Night,” where the freshmen initiates were brought to a room with a large quantity of alcohol and told to have all of it consumed before the film was over (Herper, 1999; Watt & Schuermann, 2002). The festivity was a tradition in the house; drinking beyond personal capacity proved the new member’s willingness to be a part of the brotherhood while yielding plenty of humorous stories of drunken stupidity.
