Brown and White Vol. 93 no. 14

              lehigh university brown and white vol 93 - no ii bethlehem pa friday october 23 1981 215 861-4184 3 delts placed on probation by discipline committee by mary frances donley three university students were placed on disciplinary probation for one year after they were found guilty of violating the university code of conduct accord ing to reports of the discipline commit tee on the oct 15 hearings a fourth student was found not guilty of all charges against him according to the report the charges resulted from the univer sity's investigation into the events of last april 12 at the delta tau delta fraternity house a hearing for one other student charged m the case was postponed since a faculty memberofthecommitteewith drew from the case after being chal lenged by joseph mcfadden professor of journalism and faculty friend tothe student charged the faculty member had signed a let ter to president lewis last spring which aepifire iphoto by ken finki a belhlohem firefighter pokes a hole m the burn ing attic of alpha epsilon hi fraternity the october 13 fire caused an estimated 6,000 dam ago but no inju-t-s sr stoi > on pagr 12 name-publishing policy may result in libel suits by doug mattfield the university may be vulnerable to libel suits following a decision to publish the names of those convicted m discipli nary committee hearings m a general university memorandum people hauled before the disciplinary commit tee are generally m the kind of trouble that is defamatory to publish their names without a strong legal defense would be dangerous according to joseph mcfadden professor of journalism the law of the campus states the committee on discipline shall report its action to the university community i.e , to student living groups instructional departments and offices of administra tion m writing through the dean of stu dents office mcfadden twice recommended m letters to the ad hoc committee on the discipline system that this proposal not be passed according to committee chairman stinson stroup the committee received the letters from mcfadden while they were deliberating on whether the names should be released stroup said the com mittee had strong feelings that the release of the names would be a deter rent to future violations but also felt there is a certain need for privacy mcfadden's expertise was recognized and his concerns were discussed by the committee stroup said the committee decided what would be reported would be the findings of the discipline hear ings including the names of those convicted stroup's committee submitted the proposal and the measure was approved as part of the law of the campus adden dum to the lehigh handbook according to dean and vice president for student affairs preston parr to avoid the potential for libel suits the iiairns would be relea sed a s m the follow ing example the committee on disci pline has decided that john doe should be placed on probation for one semester for the removal of a chair from beards lee lounge mcfadden said prefacing the publica tion of the names with a statement such as the committee on discipline has decided does not eliminate the defama tory nature of the statement it doesn't make a darrfbit of difference mcfad den said mcfadden explained that the discipli nary committee hearings are not like a public court it is a private tribunal not unlike the court of the star chamber and there is no privilege for reporting which attaches to the occasion members of the committee act as inquis itors judge and jury witnesses are not sworn and sometimes lie mcfadden said because there is no privilege the only defense for a publisher of defama tory charges against a named person would be truths that is the truth of the charges themselves not merely accu rate reports about the charges while truth is a perfect defense it is mostdiffi cult to prove m a libel action mcfad den added however if a student requests a pub lic hearing then the defense of consent is available mcfadden noted robert cohen associate dean of stu dents said the reason no names have been distributed to date is that the viola tions occurred before the new policy was approved in addition to the memorandum the names will also be released to the brown and while it is the policy of the brown and white not to publish these names excellent conduct cited as a cause for modification of social rules effective monday the university has instituted several experimental modifi cations of the interim social regula tions according to dean of students william quay the record of performance by the student body has been exemplary this semester quay said and it was this good record that spurred the institution of these modifications beginning monday and effective until the conclusion of the semester 1 wee kend parties may continue past the 2 a.m limit placed by the interim regula tions but the serving of alcoholic bever ages must end at 2 a.m 2 thursday nigh pubnights may now be three hours long instead if the two hours mandated by the interim regulations they may continue until 12 30 a.m instead of mid night , and there may be 80 invited guests instead of 40 and 3 the limitation of only three open parties per semester will be extended to four for all living groups if there is any abuse of these rules quay said we can restore the older res trictions immediately however we don't anticipate a restoration of the older restrictions because of the record of per formance by the student body quay said that these temporary modi ficatio'ns which will be reviewed at the beginning of next semester m no way are to be considered a substitute for the forums legislative reponsibility for set ting permanent regulations " all stolen sculptures found in a maginnes hall closet by michelle dumon a missing collection of pre-columbian mexican sculptures valued at 16,250 was discovered at 8 30 a.m wednesday m a fifth floor utility closet m maginnes hall by two allied maintenance employees according t eugene dax chief of campus police the 23 pieces ol art had been stolen from the dußois gallery m maginnes on oct 12 the maintenance men were lookinn f . light bulbs m the r\n vt when they noticed that one box had things piled around il and on top of it dax said he added that they opened the box found the irt inside and immediately con tacted campus police ricardo vlera director of exhibitions and collections verified that the roller tion was m good condition campus police dusted the objects for fingerprints and studied the box m which they wan round for further evidence according o pax see faculty page s see 2 allied page 10 inside kahn speaks p 2 oktoberfest p 4 opinions p 18-19 kick and miss p 24