A disciplinary hearing for what was deemed an act of intolerance was held on March 10.
The incident, which took place in Bush Hall early on Jan. 29 after the all-school Winter Bash dance, involved a physical altercation and sexual orientation-related slurs between two students - one of whom, freshman Kevin Casey, was placed on Disciplinary Probation Level II as a result of the hearing.
The Tufts Community Union Judiciary and Student Affairs administrators presided over the hearing, according to a statement released by the Dean of Student Affairs' Office.
Fourteen witnesses presented evidence before the panel, which was convinced that Casey "had committed a bias-related assault."
Though Casey was not named in the press release, an individual who was present at the hearing but did not wish to be named due to the sensitive nature of the issue confirmed that Casey was the disciplined student. It is Daily policy not to disclose the names of victims of bias-related incidents without consent from the victim. In this case, the victim did not grant consent.
At the hearing, Casey countered with allegations that he had been provoked by the other student, alleging that he "touched him inappropriately and later shouted a homophobic slur at him," according to the statement from the Dean of Student Affairs' office.
The panel, however, concluded that "insufficient evidence" was presented to sustain Casey's allegations that the victim provoked the incident.
According to an eyewitness who filed a police report but did not attend the hearing, "there were six or seven people in the common area when the fight broke out."
The eyewitness, who requested anonymity because of living in close proximity to the two students, was sitting in Bush Hall's second-floor common room when raised voices were heard "from downstairs as soon as they came in the door."
"Kevin was chasing [the other student]," the witness said. "He chased [the student] around the common room table. [The student] said 'Get away from me, get away from me.' At some point, the word faggot was tossed around, but I can't remember who was saying it."
Another student who witnessed the altercation but did not file a police report requested anonymity for the same reason. That witness described a similar scene: "[The student] was yelling 'Get out of here' and profanities at Kevin. He called Kevin a fag, and Kevin was like, 'You're gonna call me that?' Then things escalated."
The first witness said that after the slur, "Kevin got very angry and lunged at [the other student], and the two of them fought for a bit. It wasn't long; once they went down it was probably less than a minute."
But the witness added that "Kevin was strangling [the student] - a couple of punches may have been thrown."
According to both witnesses, the fight was soon broken up. "Kevin's friends got him off [the student] and took him downstairs," the second witness said. "At that point, I told my friend to keep the number of TUPD on his phone in case something happened again.
"But then Kevin came running back up the stairs, yelling," the witness continued. "[The student] opened the door and said, 'What do you want?' and they fought some more."
"They fought again [in the room]," the first witness said.
"Someone called TUPD, and the police were there within a minute," the second witness said. The first witness placed the police's arrival at 10 minutes after the call was placed.
The victim sustained minor injuries. Medical attention was not required.
According to the 2005-2006 Tufts Student Judicial Process handbook, "Disciplinary Probation II indicates that any further disciplinary infractions will not be tolerated... Students on Probation II are no longer considered to be in good standing at the university and are ineligible to participate in various University activities, unless an exception is made."
The handbook bars students on Probation II from studying abroad, taking part in the Greek system and playing on varsity sports teams - a factor that may pose a particular problem for Casey, who is on the Tufts baseball team. His father, John Casey, is the team's coach.
One other bias-related incident has taken place since the beginning of the semester. Less than two weeks after the incident in Bush Hall, another act of intolerance was reported at Wren Hall.
Allegedly, a student waiting on the first floor for a pizza early in the morning of Feb. 11 was verbally harassed by two males entering the building.
"[They] started calling this one student 'gay' and 'faggot,'" Tufts University Police Department (TUPD) Sergeant Robert McCarthy said at the time. "One of them then spit on this kid."
The student who spit on the victim also reportedly tried to start a fight by asking if he wanted to take a swing at him.
According to McCarthy, the police have been "unable to identify the perpetrator," but the case is not closed. "If [a student] came forward and said, 'We think we know who it is,' we'd look into it," McCarthy said.
Some students have voiced concern over intolerance on campus.
"There are a lot of homophobic things, people saying, 'Oh, that's gay,'" freshman Bill Pajerowski said. "People might have gay friends but will still use phrases that are derogatory towards homosexuals."
Sophomore Jasmine Tatum said that she was surprised at the level of bias at Tufts, especially compared to her high school, which she perceived as more tolerant.
"There were all these signs of subtle racism but nothing like it was when I came to Tufts," she said of her high school.
"Tufts is a pretty liberal school; you'd think that everyone's really open minded and aware of social prejudices, and they're not, or they are and just disregard them," Tatum said.
She also mentioned specific signs of intolerance that she has seen at Tufts, including racist graffiti on the Africana House. "It seems to be out of pure hate," she said.
Tatum said that Tufts' "huge promotion of diversity" was one of the aspects that drew her to the school in the first place, and she is disappointed in the intolerance she has seen.
Neither of the incidents this semester have been officially labeled hate crimes, but both may fit Massachusetts' definition of a hate crime considering the circumstances and official statements' classification of the incidents as "bias related assault."
The Massachusetts Department of Education's Web site classifies a hate crime as a "crime in which the perpetrator's conduct is motivated, in whole or in part, by hatred, bias, or prejudice, based on the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, gender, disability, or sexual orientation of another group or individual."
Hate crime laws in Massachusetts are particularly stringent, according to the site. For example, the sentence for simple assault and battery can be extended by as many as 15 years if the assailant is found to have a bias-related motive.
According to the Tufts Public Safety 2005-2006 brochure, no hate crimes occurred at Tufts in 2003 or 2004. Nor did any on-campus hate crimes occur in 2003 or 2004 at Amherst College, according to the school's Web site.
In April of 2005, two Harvard University students were charged with physically and verbally assaulting an openly gay student, according to the Harvard Crimson.
Massachusetts logged 346 hate crimes in 2004, down from 405 in 2003, according to the FBI Hate Crime Statistics Report. Of these crimes, 180 of the 346 in 2004 were committed in Boston.
