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THETA TAU

Judge denies request from students involved in Theta Tau videos for SU transcripts without disciplinary notation

Alexandra Moreo | Senior Staff Photographer

Frederick Scullin, Jr., a federal judge based in Syracuse, on Thursday denied five students’ requests for a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit against Syracuse University.

By Jordan MullerSenior Staff Writer

UPDATED: July 16, 2018 at 9:49 p.m.

A federal judge on Thursday denied five students involved in the Theta Tau videos requests for a preliminary injunction, which would have wiped a disciplinary notation from their Syracuse University transcripts while SU considers appeals on their student conduct violations.

Some of the students are trying to transfer out of SU, according to court documents in a lawsuit anonymously filed against the university by the five students. Two students said in court statements that the disciplinary notation could hurt their chances at being accepted to other schools.

The decision to deny the preliminary injunction is the latest development in a court battle that began in April, when five students involved in the Theta Tau videos anonymously sued SU days after the university expelled the engineering fraternity for participating in the creation of videos Chancellor Kent Syverud called “extremely racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist, and hostile to people with disabilities.”



In court documents, the five students claimed that SU rushed to label them as “criminals” in an attempt to “malign (them) personally” to salvage its reputation. The students are seeking more than $1 million in damages each, according to the lawsuit. Four of the students were prospective members of the Greek organization, while one student was a Theta Tau brother, court records show.

In June, SU suspended 15 students for up to two years for conduct violations related to the Theta Tau videos. SU determined at least one student violated multiple sections of the Code of Student Conduct, Office of Fraternity and Sorority Affairs Policy and Anti-Harassment Policy, according to court records.

Fourteen students are appealing their suspensions, per court filings. If the students request transcripts, the documents will contain a disciplinary notation even as SU considers the appeals, said Eric Nestor, associate director of SU’s Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities, in a court document. The university will remove the notation if the appeals are approved, Nestor said.

The appeal process can take several weeks, said Robert Hradsky, SU’s dean of students, in a campus-wide email on June 8.

Kevin Hulslander, one of the Syracuse-based attorneys representing the five students in the lawsuit, filed a motion for a preliminary injunction on behalf of the students on June 13 in an attempt to remove the disciplinary notation before the appeals process is completed, court records show.

At least two of those students are trying to transfer out of SU, they said in court documents. One of the students, referred to as “John Doe #3” in the lawsuit, said in a statement to the judge that “the stigma of a disciplinary action notation will severely impede” his ability to transfer to another school.

“My inability to provide a notation-free transcript … is irreparably injuring me because it is severely hindering my ability to both apply for and gain admission to another institution,” he said.

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Students protest outside the Theta Tau fraternity house after the organization’s initial suspension in April. Josh Shub-Seltzer | Staff Photographer

The students claimed the university placed holds on the transcripts only after SU added Title IX charges to the list of student conduct violations, court records show. SU withdrew its Title IX complaints when the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, which investigates Title IX claims, said the university had no standing to file complaints, according to court documents.

The students argued they should be able to obtain transcripts without the disciplinary notation because the university placed holds on their transcripts after it initially filed Title IX charges.

Nestor said in a court document that the students’ argument was inaccurate because the university placed holds on the transcripts before filing the Title IX complaints. He added that SU typically does not release transcripts when student conduct cases that involve any charges that may result in suspension begin near the end of the academic year.

A note on the Office of the Registrar website states that “transcripts are not released for students or alumni with outstanding financial or student conduct obligations.”

Nestor said the university decided to release the transcripts, though, on the condition that the notation, “Administrative Withdrawal — University Initiated,” appear on the documents.

“In so doing, the University treated (students involved in the Theta Tau videos) more favorably than other similarly-situated students subject to pending discipline, whose transcripts would have been kept on hold during the pendency of the disciplinary process as a matter of standard practice,” Nestor said.

Hulslander and Karen Felter, another attorney representing the five students in the lawsuit, did not respond to requests for comment on this story. An SU spokesperson and an attorney representing SU in the lawsuit also did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

Felter previously requested a preliminary injunction in April in an attempt to halt the SU student judicial proceedings, court records show. She withdrew the request a few days later.

One of the next battles in the lawsuit will likely be over an SU attorney’s motion to require the five anonymous students involved in the Theta Tau videos be publicly named in court documents. SU has declined to name the 18 students it initially charged with conduct violations in connection to the videos, citing federal privacy laws.

In the videos, people are seen in the Theta Tau house using racial and ethnic slurs while performing what the fraternity called a “satirical skit.” The Daily Orange obtained and published recordings of two of the videos, which appear to show people miming a sexual assault and participating in an “oath” involving racial slurs.

“I solemnly swear to always have hatred in my heart for n*ggers, sp*cs and most importantly the f*ckin’ k*kes,” the person on his knees repeats in one of the videos.

In another recording, a person sits down in a rolling chair and a different person yells, “He’s drooling out of his mouth because he’s retarded in a wheelchair.”

The fraternity’s initial suspension sparked campus-wide protests and prompted the university to begin a review of Greek life. SU officials also promised to revise its first year forum and create an Office of Inclusive Excellence in the College of Engineering and Computer Science, among other things.

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