In June of this year, junior Kevin MacDonald fell from his third-story bedroom window of Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity. The result was fatal.

MacDonald’s death was not the only serious fall to occur in the Greek community, however. One month prior, a member of Phi Kappa Psi fraternity was hospitalized after falling off the roof of his fraternity, and in July, only a month after MacDonald’s death, another UW student was hospitalized after falling from Theta Chi fraternity. The student from Theta Chi sustained injuries that included a skull fracture, fractured vertebrae and broken ribs.

These three incidents have brought the total number of reported falls from fraternity houses over the past two decades to nine, four of which have been fatal. Alcohol is thought to have been a factor in every incidence.

Members of Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity declined to comment on any specific safety oversights, but Owen McCulloch, president and chief executive officer of the national chapter, wrote in an e-mail correspondence, “Our facility at the University of Washington … meets all applicable health and safety standards.”

The last fatal incident before MacDonald’s occurred in 2002, when sophomore Brett Jensen fell 30 feet off the deck of Pi Kappa Phi fraternity. Since then, Brett’s father, Don Jensen, has been an active proponent in calling for stricter oversight of fraternity life and safety standards.

What is unique in Jensen’s approach, however, is that he is calling not for more oversight from the national fraternity chapter, but from the University.

“When something like this happens, [the University] works under the guise that they can’t control off-campus behavior,” said Jensen in regards to the recent tragic falls that plagued the Greek community over the summer. “To me, an institution like the UW would want to do everything they can to improve safety.”

In a Seattle Times article published June 9, Eric Godfrey, vice provost of student life at the UW, said that the University hoped to bring together police, UW environmental safety experts and alumni leaders to take another look at the safety of the multistory fraternity houses.

Yet the University has not taken any direct steps to see that safety concerns pertaining to the falls are being met, Jensen said.

Since his son’s fall in 2002, the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity has added an additional glass partition to the 42-inch railing that was already in place on the house’s deck. The house has also been proactive in other safety efforts.

“After the incidents that happened over the summer, we’ve removed all of the beds in the house away from windows and made all ladders stationary,” said house president Grant Saarela.

However, Jensen believes that this type of action will not solve the larger issue at hand. While it’s apparent that houses such as Pi Kappa Phi are doing their best to improve safety standards on their own, Jensen would like the University to make sure that every house in the Greek community is required to hold the same uniform safety standards and that they are strictly enforced.

“I don’t want to wait until another kid dies,” Jensen said.

Jensen is upset with the fact that despite Godfrey’s comments to The Seattle Times over the summer, the University still hasn’t taken action.

“[Godfrey’s comments] this summer, gave us the first indication that [the University] would be willing to take any action on the issue,” said Jensen. “I want to hold them accountable for what they said.”

However, the process hasn’t been as easy as the University would have hoped.

Lincoln Johnson, assistant vice provost of student life at the UW, is in charge of the project.

“We wanted to encourage mitigation surveys and work collectively with house cores to do something systematically with collective response and action,” said Johnson about the project that Godfrey had started over the summer. “I’m quite disappointed that hasn’t happened yet.”

Read tomorrow’s article to find out how the UW plans to resolve the issue, and the implications its actions could hold for the Greek community in the future.

Reach reporter Casey Smith at news@dailyuw.com.