Risk Management Cafe
Risk Management Café
May 2006
 
 
The Risk Management Café solicits questions from Association of Fraternity Advisors each month. The Essentials Editorial Board will share selected questions with risk management experts for responses. This information is provided merely for educational purposes and is not intended to take the place of seeking legal counsel. To submit a question for the Risk Management Café, send an email to info@fraternityadvisors.org.

Question:
My university has had an issue with fraternities renting passenger vans to transport sorority women and other on campus residents to their off campus facilities for parties. Although their reasoning is to prevent drunk driving I feel it is still a risk to transport intoxicated students in passenger vans. Furthermore, the act has become a form of hazing in that chapters force their pledges to drive the vans. How can we handle this?

Response:
Mitch Crane, Esquire

The issue is much more serious than one of hazing of pledges. There is a genuine issue of liability on the part of the institution. By allowing the rental of university vans and knowing that they will be used to transport intoxicated (and probably underage students) and also be operated by young and perhaps inexperienced drivers, the university has taken responsibility for any foreseeable outcome:

  1. The fact that the institution makes these vans available to organizations for this purpose, creates a sense of well-being, i.e. that potential passengers can rely on this method to be safely transported.
  2. If there is reliance, there is liability.
  3. If the vans are being used to facilitate an illegal activity (underage drinking, hazing) there may be greater (strict) liability.
  4. The reliance extends to the operation of the van. What steps does the institution take to assure itself that the operators have drivers' licenses? Are they experienced in operating vans? Are the experienced enough drivers to be able to operate vans containing inebriated passengers?

The best course of action is:

  1. Prohibit the use of institutional vehicles for illegal acts.
  2. Require drivers to complete a short course in defensive driving and operation of vans.
  3. Require a minimum driving experience of four years (this will deal with the hazing issue obliquely while directly establishing a requirement of driving experience).
  4. Require the renting organizations to sign a "hold harmless" clause protecting the institution from suit for the organization's negligence.
  5. Require the institution to be added to organization's liability policy as an additional insured for this limited purpose.
  6. Work with campus and/or local police to observe the operation of these vans, and the state of intoxication, if any, of passengers, and to enforce state laws where required.

It is essential that the institution not be a co-conspirator in the crime of furnishing alcohol to minors. Facilitating this continuing act on the part of student organizations in order to cut down on drunk driving is not only illegal, it is self-defeating. There have been instances of students dying in crashes of university vans operated by inexperienced drivers and containing inebriated passengers whose actions resulted in the driver’s loss of control.
 

Question:
What is the position that the National Panhellenic Council has taken on sorority women attending alcohol functions at fraternity houses?

Response:
Patty Disque, Chairman of College Panhellenics Committee

The National Panhellenic Conference resolution that was passed is about joint parties with alcohol. Various groups within National Panhellenic Conference have policies that are slightly different, but all deal only with parties or events that are cosponsored events or parties. The crux of the matter is that National Panhellenic Conference groups are discouraged from cosponsoring events at fraternity houses that are not alcohol free. This does not mean that individual members cannot go to a fraternity party where alcohol is present unless their national policy forbids it. The words to watch for are cosponsoring and alcohol free.