Party Schools Exposed

Party school campuses have their own bizarre social rules

Party school campuses operate under some rather bizarre social rules that would be entirely out of place in the outside world. They are, for example, the last places in America where being publicly intoxicated is accepted as normal behavior.

They also operate under the "stop snitchin" rules of urban gang culture where cooperating with police or other authorities can lead to social ostracism, a fate considered worse than death. This came up last week in the case of the UConn football player who was stabbed to death. There was an organized campaign to keep students from cooperating with the investigation. Thankfully, at least in this case, a number of students came forward to tell what they knew.

In most cases, students' refusal to cooperate in crime investigations combines with the colleges' efforts under the FERPA law to keep all campus crime under the radar to keep the public from finding out exactly how dangerous college campuses have become. Rapes, assaults, drug dealing and alcohol violations occur nearly daily, but the culture of silence and the colleges' secret judicial boards keep the public from finding out about these crimes.

Every once in a while, however, party school culture comes into conflict with the real world and can lead to some fascinating results. That seems to be what happened when Binghamton University's student leaders showed up last week for a meeting with other SUNY college leaders.

You might think that Binghamton, which is in the news nearly every day due to the antics of its basketball program and the president's wacky obsession with sending a team to the NCAA finals, would be on its best behavior these days, with the spotlight shining on it so intensely.  Not so, apparently.

The student leaders from Binghamton showed up at the SUNY meeting with some unusual refreshments: glasses of beer. While they all were apparently over 21, and therefore above the drinking age, they apparently thought that packing away a few frosty brewskies during the meeting was a good way to pass the time. Hey, we're college students, man! This is what we do, dude! Lighten up!

The students from the other SUNY campuses were not amused and voted to dismiss the three Binghamton students from the meeting. So it goes in party school land. Remember these are not some slackers, these are Binghamton's official student leaders. You know, like the leaders of tomorrow? God help us!  Thanks to MK for sending me this story about it from the Binghamton Press and Sun-Bulletin.

Judicial Boards: Secret Courts Behind the Ivy Walls

If you mention a college judicial board to parents they will call up an image of a friendly group of college officials assigning fitting punishments for students who cut in line or plagiarize a term paper. The truth is that on many campuses judicial boards are actually alternative criminal court systems that try students for felonies like arson, rape and burglary.

So what? Well, it helps if you understand that everything these courts do is in secret. The charges, the witnesses, the hearings and the sentences are all carefully hidden using the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) as cover.

Contrast this with the regular court system where nearly every stage is open to the public and reported on by the news media. There are a lot of reasons why this is a good system. It assures the public that the police and courts are doing their jobs and it also provides the transparency the public needs to ensure that there is no hanky panky going on.

Judicial boards use a different model. They are, in fact, similar to the courts run by dictators. The accused is summoned to appear before a secret tribunal. The charges are read and a sentence is passed. Some students are never informed of their right to have a lawyer. The prosecutor, judge and jury are often the same person and there is little or no oversight.

The U.S. Department of Education has amended the FERPA rules so at least the results of these tribunals are supposed to be made public, but across the country student newspapers are being illegally denied access to them.

All of this would seem pretty strange unless you realize that colleges are absolutely possessed with an obsession about bad publicity. Although they are required to report crimes to the education department, only 37 percent do this properly. Judicial boards are part of the process that allows them to cook the books. If they can convince a rape victim to withdraw her complaint then the crime doesn't go on the books. If they can convince a burglary victim not to press charges then the crime disappears. And all of these courts have a built-in conflict of interest. How can you dole out justice if your main concern is keeping campus crimes out of the newspapers?

It seems pretty clear to me that colleges have no business prosecuting felonies. After all, the maximum penalty a judicial board can impose is suspension from school. In the criminal courts a felony conviction can mean a decade or more in the slammer. What if Wal-Mart or the Chamber of Commerce suddenly decided to prosecute crimes "in-house?" There would certainly be an outcry. Colleges need to get out of the criminal justice system and concentrate on what they are supposed to be doing: educating students.