|
|
Colgate Gains Ground in Legal Battle With Fraternities
|
Return to Top |
York, Michelle
New York Times, The
|
Colgate University has won its first legal skirmishes in its effort to assert control over the school's raucous fraternities after nearly a year of court battles.
A lawsuit was dismissed last week that claims the university coerced a fraternity into selling its house to the college as part of what the school said was a larger plan to supervise students better. And last Wednesday, the district attorney declined the fraternity's request to investigate Colgate for potential criminal charges over the same plan.
"Over all, it's confirmation of what we felt all along - that what we are doing is fair and legally sound," said Charles J. Melichar, a spokesman for the university.
But the battle is far from over. Other lawsuits against the college by different groups of fraternity alumni are pending.
Colgate, in Hamilton, N.Y., about 30 miles southwest of Utica, began revamping student housing after years of problems at its fraternity houses, including hazing, sexual assaults and binge-drinking parties. The school's worst tragedy occurred in November 2000, when a drunken fraternity member crashed his car into a tree, killing four people, including a freshman, Katie Almeter, 18.
That event spurred the college into action. In 2003, Colgate unveiled a plan that required nearly all students to live in college-owned housing. As part of the plan, it told its Greek-letter organizations that if they did not turn over their houses to the college, the fraternities and sororities would not be recognized - meaning the end of all their activities. If they sold or donated their houses, students could still belong to the organizations and still live in the houses, though the college would essentially supervise them.
All but one of the Greek-letter organizations turned over their property by this summer. Nearly all of the university's 2,750 students now live in buildings where campus officials can provide some oversight.
A sole Greek-letter organization, Delta Kappa Epsilon, did not sell. It was derecognized. Colgate students are not permitted to live there or to participate in that fraternity's activities. If they do, they face disciplinary action, including expulsion.
Fraternity alumni filed suit in federal court claiming that Colgate violated the First Amendment and antitrust laws by creating a monopoly on student housing. That suit is expected to be decided in the spring.
Delta Kappa Epsilon alumni have filed a second suit in State Supreme Court, seeking to overturn Colgate's decision to withdraw recognition from the fraternity.
The fraternity's lawyers also tried to prompt a criminal investigation by the Madison County district attorney's office by filing a complaint alleging criminal coercion by the university in trying to force the group to sell. But Donald F. Cerio Jr., the district attorney, notified Colgate last week that he would not investigate.
Two other groups of fraternity alumni filed suit in State Supreme Court earlier this year, trying to undo their sales by claming they were coerced. One of those, filed in July by Phi Delta Theta, was dismissed on Dec. 5 by Justice William F. O'Brien III, who ruled that only the fraternity's board of directors - not the alumni - could file suit on behalf of the organization. The lawyers in the case were to meet last Friday to discuss any further legal options.
A similar lawsuit, filed by alumni of Beta Theta Phi, awaits a review.
Dozens of fraternity alumni have signed on to the lawsuits against Colgate, driven by a 1958 alumnus, Charles H. Sanford III, a Colorado real estate executive who maintains that the university is trying to eliminate Greek life on campus. Mr. Sanford says fraternities do many more good works than they get credit for and provide immense social benefits, including lifelong friendships.
Robert Almeter, whose daughter Katie was killed in the car crash in 2000, said that she had had great friends, too. They were visiting her the day of the accident, and they died with her in the car. After the crash, two families sued Delta Kappa Epsilon, the drunken driver's fraternity, and won.
After that, Mr. Almeter became determined to change what he calls "campus culture." He hopes to stop students from ending up like Katie and her friends, or like the driver, who was paroled in 2004, after serving nearly three years in prison for vehicular manslaughter.
Each year, Mr. Almeter drives from his home in upstate Norwich, giving dozens of lectures to students throughout the state. On Dec. 1, he spoke at a high school close to Colgate. Before Mr. Almeter's talk, he and his wife, Elizabeth, who are spending their fifth holiday season without her, stopped by the campus, which created a memorial garden in Katie's name. They laid a Christmas wreath there. "There's a huge hole in all of us," Mr. Almeter said. |
|
|
Artists Lending a Hand
|
Return to Top |
Kollali, Sapna
Post-Standard - Madison County Bureau, The
|
Colgate University's Picker Art Gallery is trying to help Gulf Coast artists get back on their feet after Hurricane Katrina.
More than 30 pieces of art have been donated by Colgate students and staff and community residents for a silent auction to benefit Alternate Roots, a New Orleans-based community arts organization. The group will link contemporary artists with shelters, evacuee centers and community organizations.
"The students thought it would be appropriate to use the arts to benefit the arts," Picker director Elizabeth Barker said. "We wanted to benefit an arts group directly and help people displaced by Katrina."
Colgate junior Phil O'Connor, an art major, came up with the idea of the auction. He said several other ideas were floating around earlier this semester, but the gallery's student interns decided they wanted to showcase local art, he said.
O'Connor donated three of his own creations, all acrylic collages. The interns were responsible for framing, matting and displaying the work for the auction.
"It was kind of surreal to frame and mat my own stuff," O'Connor said. "Occasionally, I'll do works by famous artists. Earlier this semester, I did a Degas and some de Kooning, and then I did some Phil O'Connors."
Barker said she believes current bids range from about $25 to $75. She said there is no minimum bid.
Works for auction include prints, pottery, etchings, stained glass, linoleum block prints, drawings and photographs.
There are also four World War I-era lithograph prints, donated by Eric Van Schaack, a Colgate art and art history professor. He also donated two Italian landscape prints. |
|
|
McHugh praised for resisting spending cuts
|
Return to Top |
To the Editor:
Dear Congressman John McHugh: Thank you for your support of student aid and other social programs, demonstrated by your recent vote on the Deficit Reduction Act. Although the bill ultimately passed, those of us in the Upstate higher education community deeply appreciate that you voted against a plan that would drastically cut spending on federal entitlement programs, including federal student loans.
As you would no doubt agree, investments in student aid are as important today as ever. Providing low- and middle-income students with the assistance they need is not simply admirable, it's also sound economic policy.
Studies routinely show individuals with college degrees earn substantially more over the course of a lifetime than do peers with high school diplomas only. Investing in education today can yield greater tax revenues tomorrow. And with the growing global challenges in the areas of science and technology, a well-educated citizenry is likely to be even more important to our nation in the years ahead.
Rebecca S. Chopp, president
Colgate University
Hamilton |
|
|
South Indian art forms cast spell on US students
|
Return to Top |
Nadu, Tamil
The Hindu
|
Fascinating India... as one group of Americans who had come here for its `India Study' programme found their experience here. The students from the Colgate University in the United States were here to enrich themselves with more information and have had a first hand look at south Indian art and dance forms.
After a study of the traditional art forms of south India, the students practised and later performed Bharthanatyam, Karagattam, Poikal Kudhirai (dummy horse dancing), Mayil Attam (peacock dance), Therukkoothu, besides the traditional folk art of Mysore, and Kalaripayattu, a martial art form from Kerala.
Some of them also gave a Carnatic music recital.
"We cherished every moment: while feeling the pot on our head, the stilts under the feet, the big drum tied around the neck, the sheer beauty of the songs, the layers of make up and the music from the Nadhaswram," said William Skelton, Director of the India Study group from the university, in a programme brochure.
Along with Bharatalaya, the students presented a two-day programme last week, displaying what they had learnt during the visit here. The Carnatic music group spend time learning mridangam, vocal and veena music lessons from a family in Adyar. They learnt different musical compositions, including scale exercises, pallavi, sloka and charana.
At a small village off Chennai, some others spent time with a group Kalaithulir learning traditional art forms including dances.
The classical dance form group learnt from danseuse Sudharani Raghupathy.
The group also spent time with Todas in the Nilgiris. |
|
|
An American's musical sojourn in India
|
Return to Top |
An ageing American in bush shirt and baggy trousers, carrying various musical instruments is not an unfamiliar sight for residents of Mylapore, the traditional hub of Chennai's classical arts. But very few know that the foreigner is more acquainted with the music and culture of the land than its denizens.
In fact, calling William Skelton a foreigner is unjust. The 82-year-old director of Indian study group at the Colgate University in the US has spent a third of his life since 1963 in India. Every alternate year, he brings a group of 20- 25 students from the university for a six-month experience with Indian culture, religion, philosophy, classical arts and folk arts.
Since 1969, Skelton has introduced a piece of India to more than 200 students in the US. And, in the process, Indian music and dance became his passion: he plays the veena and nagaswaram besides a host of western instruments.
"This is my second home," says Skelton, who has a tandoor oven in his kitchen and a Rajapalayam dog as pet in his New York residence. Then a well-known musician playing the guitar, saxophone and cello, Skelton was offered a grant by the Ford Foundation to study music anywhere in the world in 1963.
"A young Indian musician friend told me, 'this is your chance; you have learnt enough of Western music, now go to India and learn Indian classical music?' I took his advice," says Skelton. "The young musician friend was none other than Pandit Ravi Shankar, who suggested that I should go to the south, where learning music is more systematic."
Although Skelton had come to learn Nagaswaram, his first brush with Indian music started with vocal and veena under the mentorship of S Ramanathan. "My Brahmin friends wouldn't let me get anywhere near a Nagaswaram for the first six months," he says, laughing, "they told me I would never be able to play it."
During his "long, rich experience" in India, he has played along with some of the finest musicians in India like Flute N Ramani and Madurai N Krishnan, who passed away recently. |
|
|
Adonal Foyle
|
Return to Top |
| Alumnus Adonal Foyle and his father, economics professor Jay Mandle, both spoke with the Syracuse-area NPR affiliate at half time of the Syracuse-Colgate basketball game. The two discussed how Adonal arrived in the United States, his life with Mandle and his wife, his decision to go to Colgate, and life in the NBA. |
|
|
Forum targets fuel costs
|
Return to Top |
Kollali, Sapna
Post-Standard - Madison County Bureau, The
|
Fuel costs for farmers in Madison County and the Mohawk Valley have more than doubled in the last three years, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said.
Today, he plans to ask the Government Accountability Office to look into conservation techniques to help lower farmers' gasoline and heating bills.
Schumer said farmers are hit by fuel costs in three ways: standard gasoline for their personal vehicles, diesel fuel for their farm machinery and petroleum-based farm products, such as tires and fertilizer.
"These prices are with us forever. It's not just Katrina," said Schumer, D-N.Y. "Prices keep going up, and demand for petroleum products is skyrocketing."
At a town hall-style meeting at the Colgate Inn in Hamilton Thursday, Schumer discussed his ideas for fuel conservation and an energy policy and answered questions on education, Social Security and health care.
The senator's ninth visit to the county was attended largely by Colgate students and faculty.
Schumer said he wants the GAO to look into several fuel cost issues, including making farm machinery and technology more fuel- efficient and creating a diesel fuel reserve for the agriculture industry, similar to the federal petroleum reserve.
Don Duggan-Haas, a Colgate education professor, suggested better mass transit as a way to reduce everyone's fuel bills.
Other residents asked what the government is doing to keep oil company profits in check and prevent gasoline prices from rising unnecessarily.
Colgate senior Pat O'Brien said he supports alternative fuel sources as a solution.
"I think nuclear energy is a way to reduce our need for oil," he said. "The fuel problem could be disastrous in a few years."
Schumer said the nation needs to work harder at both conserving fuel and increasing production, to explore alternative energy sources, to push for higher mileage standards for American cars and to increase competition in the oil industry.
Schumer said he also wants to create tax breaks for people who begin producing ethanol a component of standard auto fuel in underserved areas, such as Madison County.
"If you look at what makes countries decline, it's that they don't deal with problems that are five or 10 years down the road," he said. "If we don't address it, the energy crisis of the last six months will be nothing compared to five years from now." |
|
