'Hazing' case costs UI $127K
Kelsey Beltramea - The Daily Iowan
Posted: 1/25/07
The UI, one of its top administrators, and the state must pay a now-defunct fraternity chapter $127,744.18 after a judge ruled that the university used an illegally recorded audiotape as evidence to suspend the organization.
In a 17-page ruling filed Wednesday, 6th District Judge Mitchell Turner wrote that Phillip Jones, the UI vice president for Student Services, and other university officials used the unauthorized recording for more than two and a half years in their actions against the former Phi Delta Theta fraternity chapter. During that time, fraternity members could not participate in formal rush and recruitment activities, leading to its demise.
According to the ruling:
Jones initially suspended Phi Delta Theta in January 2002 after a former pledge accused the fraternity of hazing. Then-UI sophomore Elmer Vejar gave Jones a written report, photographs, and a two-and-a-half-hour audiotape recorded with a voice-activated device hidden in the fraternity's private meeting room.
Vejar's behavior, Turner said, was "clearly retaliatory." The former pledge had leased a room over the summer and then had to be forced to move out, and so he "had a less than friendly relationship" with Phi Delta Theta when he reported the alleged hazing and alcohol violations.
Though the fraternity appealed the sanctions, the group settled with the UI after university officials used Vejar's tape to punish Phi Delta Theta.
But when the chapter's president later asked for Phi Delta Theta to be reinstated, Jones refused because the fraternity never admitted to hazing - marking the first time that the administrator told the group of that stipulation.
The illegally recorded tape resurfaced in August 2003 when university officials indefinitely suspended the fraternity.
Shortly after the suspension, however, someone found a provision in Iowa law that prohibits the use of tapes that were recorded in the manner of Vejar's. Jones then told the fraternity that while he was dismissing the hazing violations, sanctions would still be leveled because of a separate September 2001 alcohol violation.
Those punishments, however, were "disproportionately harsh," Turner ruled.
Former UI President David Skorton finally restored Phi Delta Theta to full recognition in 2004. But immediately after that decision, the fraternity had only 26 members - roughly one-third of the number in fall 2001.
Since then, Phi Delta Theta's enrollment dropped below the minimum required by the national fraternity, and the UI's chapter finally shut down.
Because the UI suspended the fraternity for a period of 983 days, Turner ruled that the university, Jones, and the state owe Phi Delta Theta $100 in damages for each day - totaling $98,300.
In addition, Jones must pay the fraternity $5,000 for his continued "use" of the disputed tape after the hazing allegation was dismissed. Turner ordered that the fraternity's attorney fees - which equal $24,444.18, and perhaps more because of the most recent litigation - need to be paid by the defendants.
E-mail DI reporter Kelsey Beltramea at:
kelsey-beltramea@uiowa.edu © Copyright 2007 Daily Iowan
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