Beta Theta Pi fraternity has chosen to appeal the outcome of a July 18 hearing at which Dean of Residential Life Mary Turco and the CFS Judicial Committee imposed a series of penalties on the house.
Beta has been granted a second hearing, tentatively scheduled for today, at which the organization will be given the opportunity to ask for clemency.
Turco and the judiciary committee found Beta guilty of each of the six charges it was accused of at the original hearing, and imposed four separate sanctions on the house -- including an indefinite suspension of the fraternity with full social restrictions.
The six charges stemmed from a series of incidents in which Beta was involved on the evening of June 26.
The Coed Fraternity Sorority Council's Minimum Standards states that a request for reconsideration of a decision to suspend an organization or revoke its recognition may only be made on the basis of three factors.
These three factors includ: a procedural error at the hearing; the presence of newly discovered facts that were not available at the time of the hearing; or if the organization wishes to ask for clemency, sufficiently compelling to warrant reconsideration of the sanction decision.
Turco, who presided over the original judicial hearing, said Beta applied for a reconsideration hearing under the clemency clause.
"They would like us to reconsider one of the sanctions against the house in particular," she said.
In addition, an organization has one week following the release of a decision to suspend or derecognize in which to apply for a reconsideration hearing.
Turco said she met with Henry Rosevear '98, chair of the CFS Judiciary Committee, and the two determined that Beta had successfully met the one-week deadline and the clemency clause, and were thus entitled to a reconsideration hearing.
The results of the new hearing will probably be released by the end of this week, Turco said.
She stressed that the second hearing would not be a "rehearing" of the original case.
"We do not rehash what we heard at the original hearing itself," Turco said.
She said the hearing would mostly be a chance for Beta Summer President Keith Lockwood '98 to present Beta's "rationale for a reconsidering of the sanctions."
The reconsideration hearing will consist of the same principles as the original first hearing -- Turco and the CFS Judiciary Committee will hear the appeal and Lockwood will represent Beta. Beta's local advisor has been invited to the meeting, but Turco said she is unsure whether or not he will attend.
In an e-mail message, Lockwood wrote last night, "As far as the appeal is concerned, there is not much to say until we discover the outcome."
Rosevear, on behalf of the entire judiciary committee, declined to comment on the reconsideration hearing because of the "extreme confidentiality" of the matter.
College administrators have declined to comment on the nature of the June 26 incidents, since one of the sanctions imposed against Beta required the fraternity to write an open letter to the Dartmouth community explaining the incidents and apologizing for Beta's involvement in them.
The letter -- which was supposed to be written no later than yesterday -- was composed and sent to the CFS Judiciary Committee yesterday afternoon.
Turco said she and the judiciary committee will read the letter before it is released to the public sometime this week.
The judiciary committee asked for the letter by Aug. 5 because they wanted Beta "to think hard about the letter and what it was going to say," Turco said. "It takes time to write a letter of that nature."
The letter would have been due Aug. 5 regardless of whether or not Beta had the opportunity to request a reconsideration hearing, Turco said.
