HillTV was reinstated Wednesday after its appeal of Chancellor Nancy Cantor’s decision to disband the station was granted by a panel of three tenured faculty members.

The organization’s status as a recognized student organization was revoked by Cantor on Oct. 20 after repeated airings of offensive content by former entertainment program ‘Over the Hill.’

Rich Levy, the HillTV general manager, said he received a phone call from his attorney David Cole between 3:30 and 4 p.m. Wednesday afternoon notifying him of the panel’s decision.

‘We’re all extremely thrilled. I’ve been thrilled,’ Levy said. ‘We’re ecstatic that the chancellor’s decision has been overturned.’

Levy said Cole sent him a copy of the decision via e-mail and then he proceeded to call other executive staff members.

‘HillTV is back as a student organization,’ said Fabian Westerwelle, HillTV’s chief engineer and operations manager.

According to the panel’s decision, the station is still suspended until Feb. 1, 2006 and must conform to various stipulations.

These include having a tenured faculty member as an adviser, reorganizing with a new name, making changes to the station’s bylaws including making it easier for a show to be canceled, creating two panel boards and creating a committee on cultural competence.

‘A lot of the stipulations we were already in the process of doing,’ Levy said.

The panel decided the content of ‘Over the Hill’ was offensive, discriminatory and threatening and violated Section 3 of the Code of Student Conduct, engaging in discriminatory behavior in violation of the university’s policy of non-discrimination by student organizations.

According to the panel’s decision, the members concluded HillTV was guilty of these violations because the material threatened the mental health and safety of individuals and groups on campus.

‘We are guided by the principle, enunciated several times in the Judicial System Procedures, that the goal of the University’s judicial process is to be educational and ‘intended to result in the growth and understanding of individual responsibilities on the part of all persons,” the panel’s decision reads. ‘We attempted to fashion a remedy that responds to the severity of the offense, the reaction to it, and that maximizes the educational benefit for all. It is our decision that suspension, followed by probation, of the organization, accompanied by significant measures that the organization must undertake before the suspension can be lifted, hold the greatest promise that the incidents leading to the hearing can result in a learning experience – for the organization, for the campus community and for the community at large.’

The panel also decided efforts by the new leadership of HillTV to address the issue of offensive content and by the members of SU administration to oversee HillTV during this period were ineffective.

‘Whereas HillTV is responsible for acts of commission with regard to the production and airing of ‘Over the Hill,’ the university also bears some responsibility for mistakes of omission,’ the panel’s decision reads. ‘The hearing board agreed that the university could have acted earlier and more forcefully had it made a more thorough investigation of ‘Over The Hill’ productions last spring. It appears to the hearing board that there has been a lack of strong university oversight and leadership with regard to HillTV.’

The panel members referenced an instance in April 2005 when ‘a segment review process was instituted that involved a student entertainment director from HillTV and a junior-level staff person from the Office of Greek Life and Experiential Learning (also serving as the faculty adviser).’

According to the panel’s decision, ‘The review process met with mixed effectiveness and throughout that period there was no action.’

Cantor issued a statement in the form of an SU news alert just after 8 p.m. Wednesday night that detailed for students, staff and faculty the timeline of events regarding the hearing, the panel’s decision and her thoughts on the reinstatement.

‘I join the hearing panel in the hope that the student management of HillTV will work with the newly formed Task Force on Student-Run Television in the coming months to ensure that the requirements stated by the hearing panel are fulfilled in order to pave the way for ending the suspension,’ Cantor said.

‘I remain committed to the importance of having student-run television, in particular, an organization that pays careful attention to the fabric of community and civility embedded in the Code of Conduct for Recognized Student Organizations,’ Cantor said. ‘Moreover, I hope the passion and energy that have been brought to the discussion surrounding HillTV will help to fuel the work of another, perhaps more significant task force.’

In regard to the Task Force on Student-Run Television, of which Levy is a part, Cantor said, the task force will present its preliminary report by the end of this semester.

‘There is no denying that we have a lot of work ahead of us,’ Cantor said. ‘But I truly believe that we will emerge with a greater sense of interconnectedness, community and access to freedom for all – elements that will be pivotal to our collective success.’

The panel expressed similar sentiments in its report on its decision.

‘We cannot erase the past incidents,’ the decision reads. ‘They happened, and they are more than regrettable and unjustifiable. They need to be sanctioned and steps taken to ensure they are not repeated.’

 

Published on November 30, 2005 at 12:00 pm