[media-credit name=’BRYAN FAUST/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]The University of Wisconsin Marching Band's Sept. 23 trip to Michigan was the latest incident in its "ingrained" culture of sexualized hazing, Chancellor John Wiley said Thursday.

According to Wiley's executive assistant Casey Nagy, the chancellor's office received complaints from "multiple sources" regarding "highly sexualized banter" from the band's now-infamous bus trip to Michigan.

"We had dancing and disrobing taking place that made some people feel not only uncomfortable but also unsafe," Nagy said at a press conference Thursday. "And we had people feel that they were not at liberty to use lavatory facilities while in transit — or at least made to feel very uncomfortable while making the trip to and from the bathroom."

In addition to inappropriate dancing from semi-nude band members, Nagy said one band member had his head shaved in an apparent hazing incident. The "clear impression," he said, was that the individual would have preferred to keep his hair.

And apparently such complaints are nothing new. A UW release distributed at the press conference cited eight separate reports of inappropriate behavior from the band over past years, including a 2004 incident in which the band apparently got so out of control a bus driver pulled over and called the police.

The release also cited women being forced to kiss other women in order to gain access to bus bathrooms, and said a female band member who was told to suck on a sex toy in an another apparent hazing incident.

Also released was the previously redacted portion of a letter from Wiley to band director Mike Leckrone, which Leckrone voluntarily read aloud. In that passage, Wiley says he is "not optimistic" about Leckrone's ability to bring a permanent end to the band members' alleged misconduct.

It was a sentiment Nagy echoed Thursday.

"[W]hen you see prior conversations repeatedly lose their efficacy over time, you at some point become skeptical that further conversation is going to continue to provide the outcome you're looking for," he said.

For his part, the 70-year-old Leckrone acknowledged his age may finally be catching up with him, a message Leckrone said he relayed to the band at Wiley's Oct. 5 meeting.

"I told them it was the first time in 38 years I wondered if I've been on this job too long," Leckrone said. "If there's a disconnect because I'm so much older … then I shouldn't be doing it."

Although Leckrone said he has since been regenerated by the band's positive attitude in the face of the sexualized hazing scandal, Wiley wrote in his letter that a single future instance of inappropriate conduct would force him to consider "wholesale changes" in the band's leadership.

Nagy was noncommittal Thursday when asked whether the legendary band director's job is on the line.

"I would emphasize that the chancellor and Mike have approached this over the last several years in consultative fashion and have tried to work together to address this problem," Nagy said.

The university also refused to disclose whether or not it was band members who filed the complaints from the Michigan trip, and Nagy also said that to his knowledge there are no threats of lawsuits or pending criminal action.

He did, however, reveal that a sexual harassment complaint against a UW staff member is now under review with the Office for Equity and Diversity. Nagy would not elaborate further but to say that it "came out of [the] context" of the Michigan trip.

It is also unclear what would happen should further allegations of misconduct against the band arise. The band is scheduled to perform tomorrow at the Badgers' homecoming game against the University of Minnesota, which can sometimes be a raucous event.

In his Oct. 3 letter to Leckrone, Wiley placed the band on probation and threatened "virtual extinction for a significant period of time" should any more embarrassing incidents arise.

Leckrone, who called the band's conduct this year "markedly" different from years past, said he will schedule harassment training for the entire band Monday, as was required in Wiley's letter.