david_eggy
Junior Member
What is the name of your state? NY
I am a member of a fraternity at RPI and we are having some trouble with the school. First off, the bad part. Last April, one of our members was arrested for selling LSD out of his room (he had sold to an undercover police officer - he is guilty). Our problem is that we had nothing to do with it and have been suspended for a year and a half.
The school has charged us with the violations that the one member is guilty of. I have looked over both the school rules and the relation statement between fraternities and RPI (an extended rulebook for frats). In the relation statement, it expressly states that the actions of a single member or small group shall not be construed to be the actions of the entire chapter. But that is exactly what they are doing.
I do not see anything that we are guilty of as a chapter, but some of my brothers say that we can be held responsible because it happened in our house. The thing that burns me is that they state that they have proved we knew about the sale of LSD and marijuana. However, the only evidence they have is the presense of a giant bong. They can easily prove we knew about him using marijuana, but then they just jump from that to us knowing about presense of LSD and sale of marijuana and LSD. We had even fined him before the arrest for use of marijuana under our own by-laws.
So, in summary, I do not see anything in any rules/laws that we are guilty of as a chapter. We have been charged and found guilty of violations that an individual is actually guilty of, even though the rules state the school will not do such a thing.
Our last appeal, in which we pressed the point of a lack of evidence, was not even heard by the appeal board, so we can no longer appeal our case. The only other appeal we had done, our first, was to a board of students who we believe may have been strongly influenced by the school.
I would like to know what legal options we have, if any, to fight this. Or if anyone could point out how we are being held responsible for all of this, any help would be appreciated.
I am a member of a fraternity at RPI and we are having some trouble with the school. First off, the bad part. Last April, one of our members was arrested for selling LSD out of his room (he had sold to an undercover police officer - he is guilty). Our problem is that we had nothing to do with it and have been suspended for a year and a half.
The school has charged us with the violations that the one member is guilty of. I have looked over both the school rules and the relation statement between fraternities and RPI (an extended rulebook for frats). In the relation statement, it expressly states that the actions of a single member or small group shall not be construed to be the actions of the entire chapter. But that is exactly what they are doing.
I do not see anything that we are guilty of as a chapter, but some of my brothers say that we can be held responsible because it happened in our house. The thing that burns me is that they state that they have proved we knew about the sale of LSD and marijuana. However, the only evidence they have is the presense of a giant bong. They can easily prove we knew about him using marijuana, but then they just jump from that to us knowing about presense of LSD and sale of marijuana and LSD. We had even fined him before the arrest for use of marijuana under our own by-laws.
So, in summary, I do not see anything in any rules/laws that we are guilty of as a chapter. We have been charged and found guilty of violations that an individual is actually guilty of, even though the rules state the school will not do such a thing.
Our last appeal, in which we pressed the point of a lack of evidence, was not even heard by the appeal board, so we can no longer appeal our case. The only other appeal we had done, our first, was to a board of students who we believe may have been strongly influenced by the school.
I would like to know what legal options we have, if any, to fight this. Or if anyone could point out how we are being held responsible for all of this, any help would be appreciated.