(U-WIRE) HANOVER, N.H. – Dartmouth College’s Chi Gamma Epsilon fraternity shut down a dance party early Saturday morning, after an intoxicated freshman, Thaddeus Olchowski ’08, allegedly jumped out of a window at the fraternity, leading to his arrest.

Brandon Piper ’06, Chi Gam president and one of the party’s sober monitors, said he was standing near the window as the freshman defenestrated himself on the stairway between Chi Gam’s basement and first floor.

Olchowski allegedly deliberately walked from the basement, up the stairs and to the window. He subsequently opened the window and leapt out without taking any apparent safety precautions, according to Piper.

“It happened very fast, there was no hesitation on his part,” Piper said.

The terrain behind Chi Gam slopes steeply downward, and as a result Olchowski fell approximately 12 feet to the ground, even though he had jumped from below the first floor.

Chi Gam’s leadership immediately took action to help Olchowski and to alert the authorities, Piper said. Former Chi Gam president Stephen Clark called Safety and Security while others hurried to the backside of the building.

“I saw him land on his side and I ran outside as fast as I could and we told him to stay there and lay still,” the CPR-certified Chi Gam president said.

Safety and Security arrived on the scene soon after and called Hanover, N.H., police for assistance, Piper said.

Police and medical officials initially feared that the freshman may have incurred a spinal cord injury and, as they were attempting to stabilize Olchowski’s head and neck, Olchowski allegedly became violent and tried to wrestle everyone off of him.

“The individual became very combative,” College Proctor Harry Kinne said.

Olchowski declined to comment on the incident.

Police arrested Olchowski only for unlawful possession of alcohol, however, and not for any of his interactions with the police, Hanover Police Chief Nicholas Giaccone said.

An ambulance rushed Olchowski to the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center where he was treated for minor injuries and released, Giaccone said.

While the police were attending to Olchowski, Piper said an unidentified male who is not a Chi Gam member urinated out of a bathroom window in the general direction of the police. Members of Chi Gam eventually asked the individual to leave, Piper said.

Olchowski, a 20-year-old, was wearing a Chi Gam-issued bracelet indicating that he was of legal age to drink alcohol when he jumped, Piper admitted. How the freshman acquired the bracelet remains unclear.

“Our doormen do not hand out to under 21-year-olds, so I really don’t know how he got it,” Piper said.

Piper said that Chi Gam would focus in the future on making sure the doormen physically put the bracelet on the wrist of whomever they are giving it to, so as to prevent any underage students from ever getting them.

-Phil Salinger

laid out in the Social Events Management Procedures, do not currently specify that party monitors must physically put the wristband on the wrist of sufficiently old partygoers.

The policy reads, “The monitor positioned at the main entrance will provide a wristband to those with satisfactory proof of age. The wristband will serve to identify those that are of legal age to consume alcohol at the social event.”

After the fiasco, Piper suggested to Safety and Security that it might be best if Chi Gam closed the party, and Safety and Security agreed, Piper said.

“Crowds were gathering to see the police restraining the kid so we thought clearing everyone out was the best decision,” Piper said.

The whole situation, including the fraternity’s actions, remains under police investigation, Giaccone said.