We are deeply saddened by the death of Courtland Smith. From the perspective of a parent and a chancellor, there is truly nothing worse than losing a young person. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends as they grieve and cope with such a great loss.
When I called Courtland’s father in Houston to express my condolences, I could tell the family was in shock. His father shared with me the optimism that Courtland had for the future.
Since we got this tragic news on Sunday, like many of you, we have been trying to piece together what happened and why. We’ve been concerned about the well-being of our students, and we’ve reached out to help them manage this awful news.
Earlier Sunday, Chapel Hill Police had contacted us, and Jenny Levering from our Greek Affairs office accompanied the police to the DKE house. It was obvious that there had been a party there, with alcohol. I know that doesn’t necessarily sound unusual. But in light of the tragedy, we felt that we needed to try to determine whether any University or fraternity policies were violated. So I asked Student Affairs to look into this.
I also met with a DKE alumnus, a DKE parent and a student of the fraternity on Monday and again on Tuesday with the alum and parent. Like us, they were concerned about Courtland’s tragic death and worried about how it would affect the other fraternity members and Courtland’s friends. They were also concerned about the party – maybe being out of hand. They asked us to help DKE set up a substance abuse education program, and we’ll get going on that next week.
The SBI is investigating Courtland’s death. On Wednesday, they issued a court order for Courtland’s e-mails, and, with help from our IT department, our Department of Public Safety turned those over within a couple of hours. We understand that the SBI also has talked with some of our students, but we don’t have any details on that.
When I attended the service for Courtland on Wednesday, I was struck by the strong friendships and staggering sense of loss. Afterward, several parents came up to me and asked me not to let this teachable moment pass. We still don’t know why Courtland died. But we can’t let his tragic death pass without learning from it.
4 Comments
Please do not let this moment pass! It is very important to the students of today and our children/your students of tomorrow. SO many times alcohol and or drugs play a part in the short lives of young ones and the UNC campus should do all possible to deter such activity. I’m sure you will do all you can.
I applaud you’re initiative and resolve in seeking a deeper truth, albeit during a tragic point and time that should have not dictated the current course of action that you now seek in the name of Mr. Smith. The exposure of the DKE House’s soft underbelly following Mr. Smith’s death must not be made an indictment of every institution that we hold dear to protect the honor and innocence of the University for political, social, and economic interests of which I believe the case of the late Ms. Carson was exploited to a tremendous degree, of which spilt over into the laps of helpess public servants who were made sacrificial lambs for the failure of the NC probation system. Chancellor, we don’t want you to attempt to try and pawn this off on us as if we are fools when it is a well-established belief that the elitist Greek life organizations are an exercise of ignorance and false ideals that are counter-productive to the rational ideals and purity that UNC is meant to represent, rather than to protect the priviliged donors who have sons and daughters in elitist Frats and Sororities that give millions to UNC not for philanthropy, but to ignore the facts that have now lead us to the death of yet another fine young student leader. If anyone were strong enough to kick in the door of the this whole rotten infrastructure of inequality and bourgeois mentality that has come to define the way of life as a UNC student, the whole thing would collapse. These forces have held the University hostage and fostered not only social injusticies, yet broken countless laws in the process of pledging that are worse than half of the criminals currenty hed in jails across NC. Yet this is all nonexistent until a man such as Mr. Smith meets a tragic fate, then all we care about is HOW and WHO was reponsible and to blame without ever addressing the root core and solution to these problems because they are easier to forget than forgive. A comprehensive overhaul is the only way to save the precious lives and souls of the next generation, rather to poison the well of life with hypocrisy and contradiction of the UNC student culture and way of life that already has ruined the virtues of so many, and must be eradicated at the very root, like a weed, so that we do not lose indepedent thinking and freedom of though and speech, unless we choose to sacrifice another Ms. Carson and Mr. Smith.
UNC, like most universities in recent years, has done little to address the growing tide of out-of-control partying among students beyond endorsing substance abuse education programs for students, Greek or non-Greek. Unfortunately, this pattern of response is a paper tiger at best. As long as the university’s largely hands-off policies re. the weekend and off-campus behavior of students continues, tragedies will continue to occur.
When I was a student at Carolina in the mid-seventies, beer was legal at 18, and as a result, most students did not consume liquor to the extent it seems they do now. (I have a daughter and a son, both currently enrolled at colleges, a private one in the South, a public one in the West, and the drinking scene is essentially the same at both.) In 1974, however, we could go to He’s Not Here and sit outside and have a beer–not supersized, I might add–instead of drinking behind closed doors or at private parties or clubs. Please look into pushing a collaborative effort with other universities to reexamine lobbying for a return to a graduated set of drinking laws.
I think that all Universities should enforce the rules about not having a party when it is rush. I think it is a good thing that UNC is having a substance abuse education program; but all of the frats and sororties should go through this program instead of DKE going through this program allown and being on probabtion and being treated as it was their fault that Courtland Smith left the party and being shout by the police. The guys in this frat should be going through grive instead of this wondering “could i`ve done something to stop Courtland Smith from leaving the party”. I am a sixteen year old sophomore, who is planning on attending UNC Chapel Hill after graduating from high school. I hope that the rules for the rush week in the near future will be forced.