Collegiate Times

The university has released documents about last week?s hearings in which the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets tried seven of its own for hazing and other charges.

According to a university-wide statement on the hearings, the Corps Executive Committee found all seven undergraduate students not responsible for hazing, willfully disobeying a superior cadet and commissioned officer and failure to follow an order or regulation.

All seven cadets were found not responsible for violating university policies after a review by the director of Judicial Affairs, according to a VTCC regimental order dated Oct. 7.

Four cadets, however, were found guilty of conduct unbecoming of a cadet, according to the university statement. The Corps Executive Committee also determined that three of these four were also guilty of violations relating to the VTCC?s general article.

According to the regimental order, the four cadets found responsible for unbecoming conduct received both a written and verbal reprimand along with military probation. The adviser to the committee imposed military probation and suspended a year-long scholarship for the three cadets which it determined violated the corps? general regulations. The remaining cadet lost the scholarship and was put on military probation for one semester.

Corps and university officials have been reluctant to hand over documents relating to the Oct. 4 hearings, citing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a federal law that bans schools from releasing educational records about students. The university did, however, provide summary information yesterday about the hearings because of ?misunderstandings and considerable media interest regarding the recent hearings for seven members of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets.?

The Collegiate Times reported last week that the trial involved, in part, making two cadets in Echo Company use the same urinal simultaneously.

VTCC officials could not be reached for comment on the university statement.