 A number of student deaths in the late 1990s and early 2000s resulted in considerable media attention to MIT 's culture and student life . After the alcohol @-@ related death of Scott Krueger in September 1997 as a new member at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity , MIT began requiring all freshmen to live in the dormitory system . The 2000 suicide of MIT undergraduate Elizabeth Shin drew attention to suicides at MIT and created a controversy over whether MIT had an unusually high suicide rate . In late 2001 a task force 's recommended improvements in student mental health services were implemented , including expanding staff and operating hours at the mental health center . These and later cases were significant as well because they sought to prove the negligence and liability of university administrators in loco parentis . 
