By Dan E. Way

dway@heraldsun.com

CHAPEL HILL — UNC officials are investigating whether there were violations of campus alcohol policies at a DKE fraternity party last Saturday night, but there are no indications that the party is linked in any way to the later shooting death of Courtland Benjamin Smith, Chancellor Holden Thorp said Friday.

As a sorrow-stricken campus continues to cope with Smith’s death from gunshots fired by Archdale police officers along the darkened side of Interstate 85 in the pre-dawn hours Sunday, the university is working with Delta Kappa Epsilon alumni and parents of the fraternity’s undergraduate members to launch a substance abuse prevention initiative to complement existing university programs.

“They decided they wanted to do more and use this as an opportunity to change the culture” of hard partying that permeates college campuses, Thorp said during a sit-down interview in his office. “The people who handle our substance abuse policies on campus are going to go over with the DKE parents how we do that,” and the first steps could be put in place as early as the middle of next week.

“We really don’t know of a direct connection between the party and Courtland’s death,” Thorp said. But the message needs to be sent out that parties where heavy drinking is involved “can contribute to a lot of the tough things that can happen.”

Smith’s erratic behavior on the morning he was shot — he told a Guilford County 911 dispatcher he was drunk, driving at a high rate of speed, had a 9 mm Glock handgun, was suicidal and wanted police officers to stop him — stood in stark contrast to the dependable friend, dedicated student, fun-loving person and natural leader that his friends and fraternity brothers knew.

“We don’t have any indications now through any of our programs that he had the potential to be suicidal, and certainly his friends looked at him as someone they could rely on,” Thorp said.

But Thorp said Smith’s father gave some insight into what may have been bothering his son when the two men talked Sunday.

Pharr Smith told Thorp that his son had said the pressures “to be a leader and a friend were great.”

“I just said, ‘I’m so sorry about the incident,’ and he told me about how optimistic Courtland was about the future, and we both talked about how sad it was,” Thorp said.

“I think every college president in the country would tell you that the pressure that builds up on young people is the biggest challenge on a college president,” Thorp said. “We need to help students deal with that, and promote the best practices we can to help manage it.”

The chancellor said the State Bureau of Investigation, which is handling the probe of the police shooting, a standard procedure in such events, has not provided many details to the university about the investigation.

“All we know that they were looking for was the e-mails [from Smith’s computer], and they wanted to talk to the roommates and Courtland’s girlfriend, and to the best of our knowledge, they’ve done that,” Thorp said. “But I don’t have any knowledge about those conversations.”

The lingering mystery about what triggered Smith’s fatal course of events and what occurred in Randolph County during the traffic stop makes healing a challenge on campus, where students “are devastated,” Thorp said.

“I think that they’re grieving the loss of their friend, and I think the fact that we don’t know precisely what happened in Archdale yet is very difficult for people to deal with,” Thorp said.