More than 100 members of the greek and KU communities gathered at the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house, 1301 West Campus Road, Monday night
for a concert to honor Jason Wren, Littleton, Colo., freshman, who died earlier this month, apparently of alcohol poisoning. Kelley James, the acoustic pop artist who performed, was a member of the SAE fraternity when he was a student at the University of Southern California. He played a mix of original and popular cover songs to the crowd of people who talked, laughed and gathered to show respect to a friend. And what’s more, they did it all sober. “The sober part of it is to raise awareness,†Jonathan Nehring, LeRoy sophomore and SAE social chair said. “We’ve all been in that situation that he was, so it should be used as an eye opener for people.†Shane Glenn, Andover junior and president of SAE’s KU chapter, said the purpose of the event was to remember a friend, bring awareness to a campuswide issue and to raise money for the Jason Wren Memorial Fund, a charity created by Wren’s father. Nehring said he liked that the event portrayed the greek community in a positive light. “A lot of people base their images of fraternities off of movies,†he said. “In movies it’s big parties all the time, just going out and being irresponsible. So it’s always nice when fraternities and sororities do something that is not what’s expected.†Despite the loss of a friend, Glenn said fraternity members were trying to cope with the situation and learn something from it.
“It’s hard to see someone who you just met disappear in 10 days, and it’s just hard to see someone so young leave so quickly,†he said. “But we’re all there for each other. It helped us, you know, take something positive out of this and make sure this kind of thing doesn’t happen again, because it happens all over the country.â€