The director of Recreation Services has modified a March 31 decision to suspend the men’s club hockey team for the fall semester, sparking outrage from the student-run board that handed down the suspension.

The team appealed the decision in an April 16 meeting with Mitch Gartenberg, the director of Recreation Services. He modified the suspension to allow the team to practice and hold tryouts during the fall semester, but he said the team will receive lowest priority when scheduling ice time and will not be allowed to play games or scrimmages. The team will remain on probation for the spring 2005 semester.

Members of the Club Sports Advisory Board, the governing council for Syracuse University’s 42 club sports, addressed a letter to Gartenberg yesterday condemning the modification and the appeal process.

The letter, signed collectively by the board without individual names, complained that board members were not informed of the appeal hearing. The letter called Gartenberg’s decision ‘extremely counterproductive and disappointing’ and warned it would ‘trivialize both the original ruling and the board’s authority.’

Gartenberg said he had yet to receive the letter at 5 p.m. yesterday, but board member Christine Lefebvre, a junior communications design major and member of the women’s club hockey team, said the board sent the letter to him, Chancellor Kenneth A. Shaw, the club sports director and a senior vice president of student affairs. A board member also delivered a copy of the letter to The Daily Orange.

‘We were very blindsided that the appeal had happened,’ said Lefebvre, who believes the suspension should be upheld in its original form, denying the team practices or tryouts. The letter called for an ’emergency fact disseminating meeting’ between the board, the team, Shaw and other officials, but it is unclear whether such a meeting will ever come to fruition.

The board’s original decision punished the team for five violations, according to the minutes of the hearing provided by the board. The board cited the team for failing to submit travel forms and facility requests, publishing a poster without departmental approval, holding a banquet at which alcohol was sold and signing contracts without university authorization.

‘Forty-one other clubs can follow the rules,’ Lefebvre said. ‘They had had enough warnings, enough slaps on the wrist.’

Greg Mueller, the hockey captain, said the team shouldn’t be held responsible for the alcohol served at its Drumlins Country Club banquet in 2002 because none of the current team members organized the event. Mueller attended the banquet as a freshman, he said, but the team captains at the time set up the menu.

‘It’s hard to believe we’re being held accountable for something that happened two years ago,’ Mueller said. He denied that any students drank there and produced receipts that showed $15 of alcohol had been purchased from the banquet’s cash bar. According to the minutes from the board hearing, Mueller had denied the presence of alcohol at the banquet until board members identified the ‘cash bar’ on the menu.

William Diamond, a 2002 graduate and the president of the team at the time of the banquet, said the banquet was an awards ceremony, not a drinking event. He said he was unaware of any rule that prohibited the presence of alcohol at a club sport-sponsored event, but the board listed in its minutes that it is a violation of Club Sports Handbook policy.

‘A few older members of the team drank, a few parents,’ Diamond said of the 2002 banquet. He said the bartender properly carded everyone who drank and that no one under 21 consumed alcohol. He insisted that action taken against today’s team because of the 2002 banquet would tarnish his perception of the university.

‘It was a Sunday afternoon, family and friends. It wasn’t like a party,’ Diamond said.

Mueller said the team accepts responsibility for failing to file required paperwork, but he said accusations that Mike Morocco, the volunteer head coach, signed contracts without university approval did not factor into the disciplinary process. The poster that the board said the team published without permission was approved by Club Sports Director Joe Lore and the Office of Greek Life and Experiential Learning, Mueller said. The poster was printed without required references to the university, but the team fixed the problem before hanging the posters, he said.

Even after Gartenberg’s modifications to the board’s recommendation, Mueller says the punishment does not fit the crime. He said the team is disappointed in the way the Department of Recreation Services has handled the situation and that team members would continue to ‘fight for what we feel is right.’

The board and the team seem to agree, however, that the club sports disciplinary system needs improvement. This is the first time in at least 20 years that a team has been suspended, Lore said, and the first time in his 3-and-a-half-year tenure that Gartenberg has modified a board decision.

‘We were very disappointed,’ Lefebvre said. ‘We were surprised.’

‘The process needs to be reformed,’ Mueller said, ‘to ensure that this never happens again within club sports.’

Published on April 26, 2004 at 12:00 pm