JUDGE ORDERS SUNY NEW PALTZ TO REINSTATE SUSPENDED STUDENTS

A FEDERAL judge has ordered SUNY New Paltz to allow the student
government's president and vice president to return to school
immediately because they were denied legal counsel at a disciplinary
hearing that resulted in their suspensions.

U.S. District Judge Lawrence Kahn ruled in Albany on Wednesday that
Justin Holmes and R.J. Parrington III must be reinstated as students.

Holmes, the Student Association president, and Parrington, the vice
president, were banned from the campus for one year beginning last
spring after an incident involving Corrina Caracci, the college's
director of residence life.

The incident occurred on April 27, when Holmes and Parrington had
just won their respective elections. Caracci claimed an encounter in
a hallway with the two students amounted to harassment, and she filed
a police complaint against them.

Holmes and Parrington were suspended after a disciplinary hearing,
but they challenged the decision in court on the grounds that they
were not allowed to have lawyers.

Kahn agreed, writing in his ruling: "The court finds (the) plaintiffs
will likely succeed in showing that the denial of their request (for
legal counsel) at the disciplinary hearing violated due process."

But the ruling does not resolve the case or all the issues raised by
the plaintiffs, Kahn wrote.

The students also are calling for the reform of the campus
regulations concerning marijuana and say the charges against them
were an attempt to squelch the progressive/libertarian student movement.

"The judge made a careful decision, and we're happy he ruled in our
favor," Holmes said in a posting on the Web site wikipaltz.com. "We
are looking forward to the opportunity to present our entire case,
which, thanks in part to our supporters amongst the students and
faculty who have unearthed even more evidence, has gotten even
stronger since we filed it."

In a telephone interview on Friday, Holmes said he plans to attend
classes when the college's spring semester begins on Jan. 22. He also
plans to hold a news conference on campus on Thursday.

Holmes said substantive issues still to be resolved include the
"retaliatory nature" of campus administration and "the underhanded
participation in student elections." He claims campus officials
attempted to influence the result of the student election he won.

Eric Gullickson, the college's director of media relations, said SUNY
New Paltz officials are "disappointed that the court took issue with
the common practice across SUNY concerning the presence of attorneys
at student judicial hearings, (but) we of course respect and will
abide by the judge's ruling."

Gullickson said the ruling means students will be entitled to legal
representation even at disciplinary hearings for such minor
infractions as littering and violating open container rules.

"SUNY New Paltz has limited taxpayer resources better spent on
educating the young people of New York than being diverted to
employing lawyers to adjudicate minor behavioral infractions," he said.