Fraternity problems

[david_eggy]

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.

 

[david_eggy]

I feel my question was too broad and based mostly on school regulations, which I would guess none of you know. So I will revise my question. What can we do about the severe lack of evidence on their part. Our appeal decision states:

"After considering all the evidence and statements very carefully, the Board concluded that the appellant failed to prove that the (name omitted) chapter had no knowledge of the presence and/or distribution of LSD, marijuana, and/or drug paraphernalia in their room at the chapter's house in the past."

That is only partially true though. The only thing we knew about was the USE of marijuana and the PRESENCE of paraphernalia. Nothing about sales, absolutely nothing about LSD. Here is the evidence they used to "prove" their case:

1. contents of room at time of search warrent execution: hypodermic instrument containing small amounts of marijuana and LSD and a labratory-grade glass sphere which could be construed to be a smoking device for marijuana.

2. an undercover Troy Police Officer purchased LSD from (name) in his room of residence at the fraternity prior to the execution of the search warrent.

3. (name) was a member of, and his room resided at the fraternity at the time of #2.

4. a table was built around the glass sphere, approx 2.5 feet in diameter, which was easily viewable in the room while walking down the hall if the door was open, and was present in the room for over a year prior to the execution of the search warrent.

5. (name) was fined by the chapter for use of marijuana about a month before the execution of the search warrent.

6. (name) was in violation of the "Institute Regulations on Alcohol and Other Drugs" and the law of the State of New York while members of the fraternity.

As you can see, they can easily prove we knew about the use of marijuana through the presence of the giant table bong. But there is absolutely no evidence to show we knew anything about LSD or about sales of any kind.

This is what we were formally charged with (by the school):
GDA=Grounds for Disciplinary Action

GDA number 1 : conduct which could be construed to be a violation of any federal, state, or local law.

yes, the one brother who was selling the stuff is guilty of this, but not the chapter as a whole.

GDA number 7 : being in any place for the purpose of unlawful use, possession, or distribution of a controlled substance.

Once again, the one guy who sold is guilty, not the entire chapter.

GDA number 14 : conduct which violates Institute or student gov. regulations established for any specific area or department by those having jurisdiction over it.

I'm guessing this refers to the Relationship statement between RPI and fraternities (an expanded set of rules for fraternities), which never states that we need to play police for the school. It could also refer to #6 on the evidence list, but again, that was just the one brother.

In fact, the relationship statement expressly prohibits the school from holding the actions of a single member or small group as the actions of the entire chapter. However, they clearly do this by charging us with the first 2 violations. Perhaps the third as well, but they never really told us what part of that we were in violation of.

So, in summary, we have been found guilty as a whole for the actions of one member. They also falsely claim that we knew about LSD and sales when they have absolutely no proof backing that up. Now that our appeals have been exhausted, I am looking for legal action we can bring against the school for this blatant violation of their own rules and our conviction with a lack of evidence. Feel free to give advice about just the lack of evidence and ignore everything else because much of the rest of it has to do with the school specifically.

 

[stevek3]

Just out of curiosity, how giant was the giant bong? I want to know. Seriously.

With respect to your question, don't waste your time or your energy. A kid fighting his college never wins. Trust me, as a young naive moron, I repeatedly tried it. Reading this sh*t brings back some very fond memories. All I gotta say is save your time and your energy for your giant bong.

Do kids nowadays still stuff wet towels underneath the dorm doors?