Dreger insists fraternity activities are "infinitely" safer than they used to be.

"We're getting fraternities out of the business of being bars," Dreger says.

At the same time, both Dreger and Gilon deny that fraternity life was out-of-control before Krueger's death.

"Yes, there were some instances where you could make the generalization," Gilon says, "but only in a few places. That's not the case with 90 or 95 percent of the people here."

The plan to house first-year on-campus is by far the most contentious of Vest's moves.

Gilon's task force recommended the plan, but he says members never discussed it. Gilon says MIT higher-ups had it inserted into the report.

"The task force was requested to make a recommendation in a certain direction from a higher body," he says.

Vest's zeal to have his plan endorsed in the report of the task force may have to do with MIT's desire to use the report as campaign literature in its upcoming capital campaign.

Dreger says he supports Vest's goal of integrating social and academic life more fully, but he says the president's plan will not achieve it.

He says fraternities have succeeded because they are small enough to act as a community, providing a web of friendships and, literally, fraternity, that a dorm could not.

"Fraternity members look after each other," says Dreger. "Three quarters [of the members] have gone through the same trouble you have. Compare that to a dorm of 300 freshman."

Ultimately MIT's fraternities may prove a difficult prey for the administration to snare.

The Greek system is important to many alumni, and with a capital campaign on the way, the administration wants to avoid the perception of an assault on the historically revered fraternity system.

Gilon says administrators also believe fraternities are crucial to student morale. Vest himself calls them "important and valued elements in our campus life" and has pledged to integrate them into his new system.

But Dreger says fraternities will find it harder to succeed financially without the money from first-years who would live there.

One thing is clear to administrators and students alike, however: The old regime is gone. The campaign to control student life, particularly student drinking, will continue at MIT. The new rules are clear and the penalties are strict.