Sigma Chi Loses Ohio Court Fight

[DeltAlum]

The Athens News
Athens, OH
June 12, 2003

Federal judge rules in OU's favor in suit by suspended fraternity

Ohio University has won a federal lawsuit filed by a fraternity that
was suspended from campus for three years.

According to OU Director of Legal Affairs John Burns, U.S. District
Judge James L. Graham has ruled on the merits of the suit, which the
Delta Pi chapter of the Sigma Chi fraternity filed April 1.

The suit charged, among other points, that OU Judiciaries violated
the fraternity's due process rights when it sanctioned Sigma Chi for
various disciplinary offenses.

In March, Judiciaries suspended Sigma Chi for five years. One of the
frat's offenses was a drinking party in November at the old Athens
city rec center, at which partiers did $1,000 worth of damage to the
building.

The fraternity appealed, but an appeals board upheld the Judiciaries
decision. It then appealed to OU President Robert Glidden, who in
April reduced the term of suspension to three years.

The original university sanctions had included throwing fraternity
members with less than 90 credit hours out of the Sigma Chi house at
15 Park Place.

It was largely to keep this from happening that Sigma Chi filed its
federal lawsuit. The suit also, however, included allegations that
Judiciaries is operating illegally for a number of reasons, including
the fact that it does not allow students charged with disciplinary
offenses to be represented by attorneys at their hearings.

The issue of the Sigma Chi sophomores was resolved outside of court,
when OU agreed to let them stay in the house for the remainder of the
academic quarter.

Now, Judge Graham has ruled in OU's favor on the suit. "It's over,
and basically he dismissed it with prejudice, meaning it can't be
filed again," Burns of OU explained Wednesday.

According to Burns, the judge cited case law supporting the right of
a university judiciary to hold hearings without allowing students
legal representation, and also turned down a request by Sigma Chi to
have OU pay its legal fees. Burns added that Sigma Chi alumni,
including local attorney Claire "Buzz" Ball, "were very helpful in
getting this resolved."

Three years from now, Burns said, Sigma Chi will be able to
"recolonize" the OU campus if it wishes to. He added that, despite
claims to the contrary by Sigma Chi attorney Derek Farmer, OU was not
motivated in its dealings with the fraternity by a desire to buy the
Sigma Chi house, located near the site of a planned new student center.


NOTE: This is the chapter that has been OFF probation for a total of about 10 days in the past several years. There are a couple of other threads on this somewhere, but a search didn't turn up anything for me.

I am still somewhat suspicious about the proximity of the Sig house to the planned new construction of the student center.

On the other hand, I hear (not sure at all) that this chapter would have been gone long ago if the former president and now professor at the university were not a Sig.