Conduct hearing begins for students involved in the Theta Tau videos
Jordan Muller | Asst. News Editor
About 25 people, including students and lawyers, gathered outside the Melanie Gray Ceremonial Courtroom in the College of Law prior to Wednesday’s student conduct hearing.
UPDATED: July 16, 2018 at 9:20 p.m.
The student conduct hearing for Syracuse University students charged in connection with the Theta Tau videos started in the College of Law on Wednesday morning.
The hearing comes three weeks after the university initially suspended the Theta Tau fraternity. Chancellor Kent Syverud, in a campus-wide email at the time, said SU had confirmed that Theta Tau was involved in the circulation of videos he called “racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist, and hostile to people with disabilities.” In a statement posted on the fraternity’s website, the SU Theta Tau chapter called the videos a “satirical sketch.”
SU permanently expelled Theta Tau in mid-April and filed complaints against 18 students present at the fraternity-sponsored event depicted in the videos. Individual students involved in the videos could face suspension or expulsion, Syverud said in April.
According to charging documents obtained by The Daily Orange, complaints against 16 people identified in the university’s investigative report will be adjudicated by a three-member board at the Wednesday hearing. The 16 people are not required to attend the hearing, according to the documents.
About 10 men entered the Melanie Gray Ceremonial Courtroom in Dineen Hall just after 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, where the hearing was scheduled to begin. Prior to the hearing, one of the men who entered the courtroom said the group was people connected to Theta Tau. They declined to comment on this story before the hearing.
Members of the public were not allowed to enter the hearing.
According to the documents, students charged in connection to the Theta Tau videos are being accused of multiple policy violations that include:
- Physical harm or threats of physical harm
- Harassment beyond protected free speech
- Conduct threatening the mental health, physical health or safety of students, including hazing, drug or alcohol abuse and bullying, among other things
- Sexual abuse or harassment
- Illegal use, possession, purchase, distribution, manufacture or sale of alcohol, drugs or controlled substances, among other things
The charging document does not specify which actions in the video corresponded to each policy violation.
About 25 people gathered outside the courtroom before the hearing, including Karen Felter, a partner at a Syracuse-based law firm representing five students connected to Theta Tau who are anonymously suing SU.
Lawyers and students were among the roughly 25 people who gathered in the College of Law prior to the hearing. Paul Schlesinger | Staff Photographer
Felter said she believed that there was “no possible way” the hearing could be fair. She said she agreed with the sentiments of Gregory Germain, a College of Law professor advising three students involved in the Theta Tau videos, who has expressed concern about the university conduct process, the charges against the students and the speed of the investigation and hearing.
Sarah Scalese, SU’s associate vice president for university communications, said in a statement Tuesday that the university’s student conduct process “respects the rights of all students” and is “designed to lead to fair outcomes in difficult cases.”
Zach Greenberg, a First Amendment attorney at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education — an independent student and faculty rights organization — said he believed students involved in the videos were exercising protected free speech.
“Under (SU’s) own policies, they may not punish these students for their protected free speech,” Greenberg said outside the courtroom. He added that he would try to speak during Wednesday’s hearing as an expert witness.
FIRE has criticized the university’s charges against the students and sent a letter to Syverud demanding SU drop the investigation.
SU permanently expelled the Theta Tau fraternity in April. Kai Nguyen | Photo Editor
According to the charging documents, Wednesday’s hearing will begin with a presentation by the Department of Public Safety’s primary investigator. Then, each student will have the opportunity to speak to the conduct board. After student remarks, the board will determine guilt for student policy violations by a preponderance of the evidence standard. Neither party is able to cross-examine the other, but the conduct board is allowed to conduct witness interviews or gather additional information at the hearing, per the documents.
Students are allowed to be advised by attorneys or other advisers, according to the documents. They can provide advice to students during the hearing but cannot write statements or otherwise participate, per the documents.
MORE COVERAGE:
- Professor advising Theta Tau students says conduct process is ‘unfair’
- SU will not publicly release names of students in Theta Tau investigation
- Complaints filed against 18 people present at Theta Tau event
- Second Theta Tau video shows mimed sexual assault of person with disabilities
Published on May 9, 2018 at 11:36 am
Contact Jordan: jmulle01@syr.edu | @jordanmuller18
