The cancellation of the University of Vermont's men's hockey season raises many questions beyond the confines of Burlington, namely, whether a similar situation could arise at Dartmouth or elsewhere.
"If an incident occurred and nobody told the truth about it, it would become an overall matter for the [school]," Dartmouth College Athletic Director Dick Jaeger '59 said. "It would depend on the situation."
No hazing goes on within the Dartmouth men's ice hockey team, however, according to coach Bob Gaudet '81 and current players.
"It doesn't exist here," team captain Ryan Burkart '00 said.
But with a considerable statistical link between membership on different teams and membership in particular Greek organizations, does this mean that if there's any sort of hazing in Greek houses, older team members are hazing younger players?
"I've heard about incidents and antics that go on around certain fraternities and sororities," Jaeger said. "I don't think you can make the connection that since something goes on at a house and 80 percent of its members are on a team, that it's a team related thing. It's not a team related thing, it's a house related thing."
The members of the Dartmouth athletic department interviewed for this article said they did not believe hazing went on among teams.
"Our hope and our expectation is that that kind of thing is not going on,"Jaeger said.
Jaeger added that he supports the Student Life Initiative's intent to eliminate hazing from Greek houses.
Gaudet, a member of the hockey team and of a fraternity when he attended the College, said hazing on the team has not been an issue.
"I played here and I went to school here," he said. There is "none to my knowledge at all. It's not something that would be condoned."
UVM
At UVM, when the players' covert hazing was discovered, it was certainly not condoned.
A former Vermont hockey team member sent a letter to the university on Oct. 28 describing unpleasant events forced upon him by upperclass hockey players. A subsequent university investigation turned up some evidence of hazing.
As the media has reported throughout the scandal, UVM disciplined the players by suspending one player for each game of the season.
However, UVM coach Mike Gilligan told The Dartmouth that the suspensions were not the only punishment.
"That's only one fourth of it," Gilligan said. "We put them on probation, we established an education component to these sanctions and we also had hours of community service" for everyone on the team.
Since that first investigation, new information came to the attention of university officials that prompted the termination of the men's hockey season.
Gilligan would not discuss the nature of the new information because of a pending civil case filed by the player who originally sent a letter to the university, but UVM President Judith Ramaley has called the information, "credible."
Gilligan said the original investigation "turned up that there were some violations of university, athletic department and team policy."
The new evidence must have gone much further.
"I think it's an embarrassment to the boys and to the department and to the university," Gilligan said. "It affects a lot more people than UVM people."
Peripheral effects
Practically, UVM's abbreviated season hurts Dartmouth more than any other ECAC team, according to Gaudet.
"I have a hockey team that plays a tremendously long season, and we're faced with the situation of playing without a travel partner," he said.
The Big Green's schedule has been rearranged to allow them rest between games that their opponents were afforded because they do not have to play Vermont in the same weekend. With its contest against Cornell moved from tomorrow to Monday, Dartmouth no longer has any back-to-back contests for the remainder of the season.
The effects on the psychology of ECAC teams may be more significant.
"Any time something like this happens to an institution and a particular program, it's an eye-opener for anybody," Gaudet said. "When something like this happens, this happens to the whole hockey community."
However, if hazing does not go on among Dartmouth teams, they should not fear losing a season or potential criminal charges or the media scrutinty Gilligan said his team has endured.
"So far [there have been] no criminal charges," he said. "In light of how things have taken off in terms of public relations, maybe [canceling the season] had to be done."
