Conduct hearings to begin for 18 students present at Theta Tau event
Alexandra Moreo | Senior Staff Photographer
The 18 students charged by the university were removed from classes in April.
UPDATED: July 16, 2018 at 9:30 p.m.
Hearings will begin within the next week for 18 students charged for their connection to a Theta Tau-sponsored event captured in videos published by The Daily Orange in mid-April, Chancellor Kent Syverud said in a campus-wide email Friday.
None of the students will be participating in commencement and commencement-related activities next week, Syverud added.
Each of the known students involved or present were charged by the university with causing physical harm or threatening physical harm to persons, harassment, threatening conduct, including hazing or bullying, and violation of SU’s drug and alcohol policy, according to a letter to the editor sent to Syracuse.com by the Theta Tau fraternity. DPS Chief Bobby Maldonado said in April the 18 students charged were present at the Theta Tau-sponsored event.
Theta Tau was permanently expelled from SU in April after the university confirmed it was involved in the creation of online videos of people at a fraternity event engaging in behaviors that Syverud called, “extremely racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, sexist, and hostile to people with disabilities.”
Those 18 individuals have also been removed from academic participation out of an “abundance of caution” and concern for the university community. Maldonado said in April that alternate class and study arrangements would be made for those students during the university’s judicial process.
Syverud said that he has spoken with hundreds of SU community members and promised to provide updates about the university’s work and progress.
The chancellor said SU has identified someone to lead the “top-to-bottom review” of university Greek life processes, programs, services, staffing, policies and culture. SU officials consulted with eight other universities and expects to confirm the point person by June 1, he added.
The College of Engineering and Computer Science has continued dialogue and meetings, Syverud said, and plans to administer “education” for administration, faculty, staff, teaching assistants and students by the end of spring 2019. The college has passed a diversity, inclusion and bias training resolution and is developing a diversity council, Syverud said in the email.
Syverud also announced that the Title IX office, Student Services and the Counseling Center will begin hiring more employees. Modifications are being made to University Conduct Board transcripts, bias reporting and space accessibility.
In the email, Syverud also said he charged Vice Chancellor and Provost Michele Wheatly and other deans with improving first-year forums. He said Wheatly will provide an update on the forums in the near future.
The Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence, a new office at the university, will likely have a founding director by June 1, Syverud said. Its purpose is to enhance faculty’s “pedagogical skills, inclusive of cultural competencies,” per the email.
“I believe additional areas of opportunity for important improvement include human resources and communications,” Syverud said. “I expect to provide more detail on these areas in coming weeks.”
MORE COVERAGE:
- Professor advising students involved in Theta Tau videos 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 4, 2018 at 1:25 pm
Contact Catherine: ccleffer@syr.edu | @ccleffert
