Despite the attempts of one NIU official, damages resulting from the March 24 fight between Phi Kappa Sigma and members of the NIU football team will be settled between the groups without legal action.

Larry Bolles, director of the University Judicial Office, said he encouraged members of both groups to file charges through the judicial office, but both parties declined to do so.

“I was not part of the agreement” not to seek further legal action, Bolles said.

Although the parties involved “can and should file a complaint,” Bolles said members of the football team and the fraternity “refused” to file charges as a result of the incident.

“I can’t find anybody that really knows who hit whom,” he said.

After the incident, letters were sent to the fraternity and the football team encouraging the respective groups to file charges and to emphasize the seriousness of the situation, Bolles said.

“These things are serious, people are going to Kish (Kishwaukee Community Hospital),” he said.

“I don’t know who is guilty,” Bolles said, but “this is the final warning about fighting on Greek Row.”

Head football coach Jerry Pettibone said the players involved were disciplined through the team for their involvement and will pay for a portion of the damages. Pettibone declined to explain the nature of the discipline or the players involved.

However, Pettibone said Greek Row was placed “off-limits” for the rest of the semester to players not involved in a fraternity. Players that are fraternity members can participate only in activities that do not involve other fraternities, he said.

Mike Linehan, the fraternity’s president, said it was “much easier” not to file charges.

Confusion of who hit whom and the “hastle with the courts” deterred both parties from filing charges, he said.

Dan Olson, fraternity house father and a Biology faculty assistant, said the football players are expected to pay 50 percent of the repair cost. Olson said the fraternity received three different estimates with a repair cost of “roughly $250.”

Linehan said three glass panels on a trophy case were smashed and the house’s front door was damaged in the incident.

Pettibone said a meeting between himself, DeKalb Police Investigator Jim Rhodes, Associate Athletic Director Clarence Hudson, Linehan and Olson provided insight on possible ideas to prevent similiar incidents in the future.

A fall gathering with fraternity members and football players was suggested in the hopes of eliminating the adversarial feeling between football players and Greek Row, Pettibone said.

“We want our guys to be interested in the greek life in college” and the NIU greek students to know that “it’s their team,” he said.

Olson said fraternity members are “very pleased with the professionalism the athletic department” showed in the handling of the incident.