In a rare act, a university has expelled students who allegedly perpetrated a race hoax that brought negative attention to the school.
Two women who were involved in the alleged hoax have been expelled from the State University of New York at Albany, while a third student was suspended for two years. The disciplinary action comes after the students were arrested and charged with 10 misdemeanor charges, including assault and false reporting.
The three women — who are black — accused a bus full of white people of attacking them and using racial slurs. After police investigated the incident, it was determined that the three accusers were not the victims but in fact the aggressors.
Audio and video collected from the attack showed one of the accusers throwing the first punch and another using a racial slur while white bus riders tried to break up the fight. When one of the accusers called 911 after the fight to report a race-based crime, she bragged about “beat[ing] up a boy.”
After the students reported the alleged hate crime, SUNY Albany President Robert Jones jumped on the condemnation bandwagon, saying he was “deeply concerned, saddened and angry about this incident” and that “there is no place in the SUNY Albany community for violence, no place for racial intolerance and no place for gender violence.”
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton also tweeted about the incident, writing “There’s no excuse for racism and violence on a college campus.” To date, Clinton has not apologized for rushing to judgment or suggesting there’s no excuse for hate crime hoaxes.
The accusers were expelled after a disciplinary hearing they did not attend due to a conflict of interest involving the university, which was judging their behavior while also serving as a witness in the criminal case against them. Their hearing consisted of two witnesses — a university police inspector and the SUNY Albany vice president of communications and marketing.
The Inspector Paul Burlingame cited audio, video and witness statements, as well as more than 300 hours of investigation, that led to the decision to charge the women with filing a false report.
“There is absolutely no evidence which supports [accuser Asha] Burwell’s version of events that the incident was precipitated by a female passenger hitting Ms. Burwell while Ms. Burwell was seated,” Burlingame said, adding that, “in fact, there is no video evidence showing Ms. Burwell being struck by anyone at all.”
SUNY Albany VP Joseph Brennan testified at the school hearing that the accusers’ actions resulted in “reputational harm” to the university. He said he had received letters from parents stating they would not send their students to the school because of the students’ actions and that the school had to halt production on a fundraising video and social media campaign.
While it is good that a school is finally disciplining students for participating in a race hoax, I can’t ignore the fact that the three accusers don’t appear to have received much in the way of due process in their hearing. The school’s conflict of interest is important; the students shouldn’t have faced disciplinary action until after they were convicted or acquitted (they rejected a plea deal that involved an apology).
Burwell’s attorney, Frederick Brewington, also said the school did not hear evidence that supported the accuser’s account, including “at least one of the interviewed witnesses heard other students confirm that Ms. Burwell and the other ladies were called [a racial epithet].” Now, one witness out of nearly 20 doesn’t mean the accusers were telling the truth, but that should have been for the hearing panel to decide.
Not allowing the students a proper chance to defend themselves is unfair, regardless of whether they’re being accused of falsely reporting a hate crime or campus misconduct.
Still, the evidence released in this case does seem more damaging than the usual campus “preponderance of evidence” standard, often used to expel men accused of campus sexual assault. The justice system will determine what punishment, if any, these women deserve for their alleged hoax.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
