So what exactly happened in Michigan that has Chancellor John Wiley primed to dismember entire sections of the University of Wisconsin Marching Band?

No one in the band seems to know, and the administrators who do aren't saying much.

"I think no one in the entire band knows what happened in Michigan," UW sophomore and band member Kevin Hart said after practice yesterday. "There weren't any arrests; there wasn't any serious injury. I have no idea what spurred it at all."

But Provost Patrick Farrell, second in command to Wiley in the UW administration, told The Badger Herald there was at least one incident on the bus trip back from Ann Arbor Sep. 24, which he described as "somewhat more serious" than hazing.

"I think [Wiley] has tried to avoid being too specific about the events because there are individuals involved in which they probably could be easily identified if you say exactly what the events were," Farrell said. "So there's some reluctance to sort of say, 'This is precisely what happened.'"

Whatever happened in Michigan — or on the bus trip back to Madison — it was significant enough for Wiley to personally reprimand the band in a private meeting Oct. 5, in which band members said he addressed both hazing and inappropriate nicknames. According to band member Beth Hestad, a UW senior, Wiley also threatened to "gut the band" and "start over from scratch."

Wiley's special assistant Casey Nagy said the Michigan incident was similar to cases previously brought to the administration's attention over the past few years. He also said university administration has had several conversations with the band and with Director Michael Leckrone over the past several years as different reports of misconduct have come to their attention.

Those meetings have caused the band to institute various measures to address such inappropriate behavior, Nagy said. But after the Michigan incident, he added, it became "obvious" that such measures were not working.

"The line's been drawn," he said. "There will be no more conversation about what is acceptable and what is not acceptable."

But according to Hestad, not everyone present at the meeting feels the line is quite so clear.

Hestad said Wiley refused to identify even to them what happened in Michigan, a trip she said was one of the calmest and most laid back of her four years with the band.

"To me and a lot of people, [Wiley] made it sound like we're not even allowed to go to the bars together anymore," Hestad said. "I think people would be less upset and confused if he could tell us why he was down on us."

Leckrone would not shed any light on the controversy when reached by phone Tuesday evening, and said any comment about the incident in question would be inappropriate.

"We try to uphold what we say we're going to do," said Leckrone, who is also a tenured faculty member in the School of Music. "Our conduct is not what we think it should be."

Although Leckrone said he and Wiley are on "exactly" the same page, one band member speaking on the condition of anonymity said Leckrone himself is in the dark and does not know what event UW administrators are citing.

Meanwhile, Wiley's threats and the press coverage the band has received have taken a toll on some members. UW junior and band member Missy Kieffer said she hopes people will not think less of the band despite any pending disciplinary action.

"Ninety-nine percent of the people that I know in band are not even close to fitting the description that Wiley is putting on us," Kieffer said. "It just makes me upset to see all this publicity about it and having everyone down-talk the band."

At this juncture, Nagy said the university is not pursuing disciplinary action against any students for the incident.

–Andriy Pazuniak contributed to this report