As a result of underage drinking, Dartmouth’s Beta Alpha Omega fraternity was suspended without any type of hearing by Dean of the College.

Joseph Asch, member of the Class of 1979, takes a look at the case and concludes there is dishonesty in the enforcement of conduct standards:

…An example closer to home occurred when Hanover Police and Safety & Security recently searched for a freshman who had been observed drinking three margaritas and a martini at Molly’s over the course of a two-hour meal. In the Hanover Po’s elaborate report of the incident, S&S advanced the notion that it needed to enter the student’s locked room due to a concern that the student had passed out due to alcohol consumption. Given that H. Po and S&S had precise information on the student’s consumption (it had his restaurant receipts and he had been surreptitiously watched by Dartmouth employee Ruth Kett), this excuse was a sham — its dishonesty probably contributed to light penalty the freshman’s lawyer negotiated for his conduct.

All of which leads us to the summary suspension of Beta Alpha Omega fraternity without any type of hearing by Dean of the College Charlotte Johnson, Esq. (University of Michigan Law, Class of 1988). Beta’s crime? Having circulated e-mails about hazing, in which such acts as “spraying pledges with Champagne” and taking shots at various places on a circuit were described.

Was suspending Beta justified under the Dean’s own Organizational Adjudication Committee (OAC) rules?

Did Beta need to be suspended in order to “preserve and protect the safety and/or welfare of specific individuals on campus and/or the College community as a whole”? Has the frat been “charged with serious criminal behavior” or does it pose “a significant risk to the safety or educational environment of the community”?

Judge Sirica would laugh this one out of court. There is obviously no safety issue involved, no criminal behavior is threatened (hazing is a Class B misdemeanor), and what possible risk is posed to the educational environment at the College? — Beta certainly wrote about nothing that doesn’t occur virtually every weekend at dozens of venues around the College. Beyond that point, Beta’s supposed pledge plans went no further than things that were done by many sanctioned fraternities in the past, fraternities that were allowed to carry on pending an investigation.