ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 24, 1996 TAG: 9601240048
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: ELISSA MILENKY STAFF WRITER
MEMO: NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.
Six students were suspended from Virginia Tech for two semesters after admitting they took a fellow student to a remote area of Montgomery County at night in early December and left him to find his way home.
All students involved were members of the university's Corps of Cadets. The university would not release their names.
"We were concerned because it was a very cold evening and it was a potential for harm, as well as the fact, in our opinion, it was clearly hazing," said Larry Hincker, university spokesman. He did not know exactly where the student was dropped off or how he made it home, adding it was "far enough to be a long way."
Corps Commandant Stanton Musser could not be reached for comment.
The cadet filed a complaint with the university within a day or two of the incident. All six students admitted their wrongdoing and were immediately suspended for the next two semesters without going through the judicial hearing process, because there was no question about the facts, Hincker said. No criminal charges were filed.
According to state law, hazing is a Class 1 misdemeanor.
This is not the first hazing incident involving the Corps of Cadets. In 1988, a Tech junior was taken from his room by fellow cadets and driven to the Tech duck pond at night. His head was shaved with an electric razor in an apparent attempt to punish him because he grew his hair and did not demonstrate corps spirit.
The cadet was hospitalized with head and back injuries. One of the students who abducted him was expelled; seven others were placed on probation.
The university defines hazing in its student life policy book as "any mental or physical requirement, request or obligation placed upon any person which could cause discomfort, pain, fright, disgrace or which is personally degrading...''
Tech has always had a policy against hazing, Hincker said, but the definition has become more specific in recent years and now takes up more than two pages in the student life handbook.
The corps has an education program for all cadets that defines hazing and explains why it is prohibited.
"That was one of the reasons the commandant of the corps was so upset," Hincker said, adding that the incident seemed to be one of "individuals and not an institutional act of the corps."
LENGTH: Medium: 51 linesby CNB