PSU: Student conduct investigation completed
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Seven Penn State University students received sanctions ranging from probation to expulsion stemming from the February hazing death of a sophomore fraternity pledge, while 19 other individuals withdrew from the university before the discipline process concluded.
Penn State officials also said Tuesday that six other individuals tied to events at the Beta Theta Pi fraternity house “participated in student conduct conferences and were not charged with any violations.”
In all, Penn State says it has concluded the student conduct investigation and disciplinary process for 32 individuals related to the death of Timothy Piazza, an engineering student from Lebanon, N.J., whose excruciating final hours after a night of hazing and drinking were detailed in a grand jury report.
His death and criminal prosecutions stemming from it made national headlines and triggered renewed debate surrounding what campuses are and are not doing to curb alcohol, hazing, sexual misconduct and other troubles within Greek life organizations.
In explaining the “conduct withdrawal” exercised by the 19 students, Penn State said they “have a notation placed on their transcripts stating that while there has been no disciplinary conclusion, should the student seek to return to Penn State, he or she must first undergo completion of the University’s disciplinary process.”
The university did not identify the individuals sanctioned and, citing student privacy, said it would provide no additional information about the specific disciplinary cases.
The results announced by the university are separate from the criminal cases being pursued by Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller.
In a statement, Penn State President Eric Barron said the university intends to hold accountable individuals and organizations that put others in danger. The university, amid fallout over Mr. Piazza’s death, further clamped down on, and overhauled the rules that govern, the roughly 80 Greek