Dear Starks family,

The university joins us when we say we are sorry for your loss. It’s been said there is nothing more painful than having to bury a child. We realize words can’t make up for your loss.

But neither can money.

The way to get over this grief is not by suing the university. The financial burden that would come of the lawsuit will not only affect those involved in your son’s passing but also others that weren’t involved, such as USU students and Utah taxpayers (because they help pay for USU to operate).

USU has already been drastically impacted by the recession. Departments are merging and faculty and staff have been cut to a bare minimum. We’re operating under a skeleton of employees and resources.

Lawsuits are expensive. Lawyers are expensive. Here’s the thing: We can’t afford it, and we shouldn’t have to.

We realize you’re hurting, we realize you have a right to be hurting, but the majority of students at Utah State University realize they are not the ones to blame. Tuition has risen and a lawsuit will only push it further upward. It’s becoming more and more difficult to be able to afford tuition and the faculty and staff are aware they are among the lucky to still be employed. Your son made a choice to rush and what happened that night is horrible, but robbing uninvolved students of the quality of their education and the resources available to them will not reverse what has happened.

Those students directly involved have been to court and are serving their punishments. The chapters of the involved Greek houses have been shut down. So please don’t punish us, don’t let your grief turn to bitterness. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that finding a scapegoat will make it any easier to swallow.

The university is also not to blame for your son’s death. USU is a dry campus. Alcohol is not allowed anywhere within campus limits and those who choose to violate this code deal with the consequences. The party your son attended was located off campus. Those who attended and created the party must have been aware of USU’s dry campus policy and that’s why they moved it off campus. To suggest that the university must send baby sitters out with students when they leave campus to make sure they aren’t doing things they shouldn’t is chimerical. The university never promised to follow your son around town telling him to obey laws.

Here’s what we suggest. You have a Web site and that can be a great tool for collecting donations for your cause. Use the money and time you save from the lawsuit toward educating on the dangers of binge drinking. This should help you feel better by doing something good for others. You can help prevent what happened to your son from happening to someone else’s child. But pretty please, with a cherry on top, don’t do it at the expense of students’ education at USU. It’s our future at stake.

Sincerely,

The Aggies