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Judiciary revokes SAE’s status at university
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The Student Judiciary revoked University of Wisconsin fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon's student organization status for a second time Tuesday.
The case flared up in February when Student Judiciary originally revoked SAE's student organization status after it was fined over $95,000 by the Madison Police Department for a Halloween party held last year.
But SAE appealed the decision last month on the premise that the Committee on Student Organizations (CSO) violated its own due process bylaw when they revoked SAE's status more than four weeks after the party.
Student Judiciary ruled in SAE's favor by reinstating it as a student organization.
However, the CSO appealed the decision on grounds of procedural Anglo-American law that prohibits new arguments from being raised after the original hearing.
"We are really disappointed that the decision was overturned," Adam Ostrum, SAE president, said after Tuesday's revocation.
But according to Amber Hodgson, vice-chief justice of Student Judiciary, appeal cases cannot bring up issues against the decision unless they were part of the "original record."
Additionally, the fraternity was not surprised the CSO appealed the reinstatement, but Ostrum said the Student Judiciary's decision was unexpected.
"We expected them [CSO] to appeal, but we did not expect the decision to be overturned," he said. "We were pretty confident with what our case was."
However, Hodgson said SAE did not bring up the "timeliness" issue in the original case and therefore, their appeal should not have been heard in the first place.
Hodgson said this was a challenging case to rule on and that SAE is "very serious and very passionate about their cause."
Despite SAE's dedication, the committee has had the last word in the back-and-forth appeals.
According to Hodgson, if the fraternity chooses to pursue its case further, Chancellor John Wiley is the next person to address.
"After the appeal process has been exhausted with [Student Judiciary], [SAE's] only out is the chancellor," she said.
Currently, Ostrum said SAE is in the process of communicating with their national office, and will have a better idea of their upcoming actions in a few days.
"We are still getting over the shock," he said.
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It’s pretty funny that the original decision was overturned due to a loophole; and then that decision was overturned because of another loophole.
“However, the CSO appealed the decision on grounds of procedural Anglo-American law that prohibits new arguments from being raised after the original hearing.”
Shouldn’t SJ have realized this before they granted an appeal? It looks great that SJ is overturning its own rulings because of its own mistakes.