This story was reported by Lisa Brennan-Jobs, Lori I. Diamond, Rebecca F. Lubens, Olivia E. Ralston and Pamela S. Wasserstein and was written by Geoffrey C. Upton.

Last Friday night, 18-year-old Scott Krueger was rushed to Beth Israel Hospital after the MIT student was found unconscious amid vomit and bottles in a Boston fraternity house basement. He died three days later.

The incident occurred at a celebration for pledges of the Greek society Phi Gamma Delta. Krueger reportedly consumed 16 drinks during the festivities.

Although authorities have yet to conclude whether Krueger was forced to drink, the incident-along with other recent alcohol-related fatalities on campuses nation- -wide--has raised questions about the role of drinking in the initiations of American fraternities and sororities.

Here at Harvard, where fraternities hardly exist, students say annual initiation rites involving the heavy consumption of alcohol are practiced nonetheless.

Members of various Harvard organizations recount rites of initiation that encouraged or pressured them to engage in a variety of embarrassing and potentially dangerous activities, many including alcohol.

According to a student punching a final club, for example, part of the club's initiation is a trip to the oceanside home of a club alumnus, at which new members must do keg stands in the Atlantic.

Sports teams also involve alcohol in their initiations.

One male varsity sports team requires new members to participate in an elaborate scavenger hunt through Cambridge for approximately 35 items. Drinking is encouraged.

"We had to pose naked in [public]...and take a Polaroid picture of it," says one team member, on condition of anonymity. "For every minute we were late [getting] back we had to drink. If you didn't want to drink, you didn't have to; you had to eat tabasco sauce or do something worse."

After the scavenger hunt, new members were given clothing to wear for the next stage of the initiation.

"Some of us had to wear frilly women's underwear," the student says. "Two guys were handcuffed together."

And the drinking continued.

"The ones of us who were drinking had to consume a large amount of alcohol and do keg stands," he says.

During the keg stand, he explains, new members were held in the air by their teammates and given the nozzle of the keg, which they then held in their mouths and drank from for as long as each could take.

After the cross-dressing and keg stands, the team "had a party," the student adds, at which "anytime anybody saw you walking around they'd put a drink in your hand."