The punishment for Ohio State students rioting off campus is well known, as a number of students were suspended and one was expelled last month for their roles in the post-Michigan game riots. However, students from other schools who were arrested for rioting in Columbus face varying degrees of punishment.

After the Nov. 24 riots, students from Bowling Green State University, University of Pittsburgh, University of Kentucky, University of Toledo, Capital University and Baldwin-Wallace University were on the arrest records. OSU has no control over their punishments.

“Those students that do not attend OSU and were found participating in the riots are punished according to their university’s student code of conduct, just as OSU’s students are,” said Patrick Hall, director of Student Judicial Affairs. “Although OSU cannot charge the student for any act, they may still be criminally charged by the Columbus police department.”

Universities must share information with each other when students are involved in disorderly or disruptive conduct.

A University of Michigan professor was able to positively identify four Michigan students tipping over a car on 13th Avenue after the Nov. 24 riots.

“What we do is cooperate with each other when students at one university get into trouble at another,” said Ruth Gerstner, spokeswoman for Student Affairs. “If a person arrested on our campus is a student at Ohio University, we will forward that information to the judicial officer at OU, and vice versa.”

Lorri Edgeworth, director of Student Conduct at University of Toledo, said a Toledo student was arrested on the OSU campus after the riots.

“Our student code of conduct extends to off campus, and OSU can be sure that student was disciplined accordingly,” Edgeworth said.

William Hall, vice president of Student Affairs, said students seemed remorseful and expressed regret for their inappropriate behavior, and a Bowling Green student wrote a letter of apology to OSU.

Jill Carr, associate dean of students at Bowling Green, said any BGSU student arrested on the OSU campus, or any campus, is held responsible for his or her behavior and that BGSU’s code of conduct extends to off campus as well as on the BGSU grounds. BGSU students arrested at OSU were punished by their school’s code of conduct.

To help OSU get a handle on “party” rioting and post-athletic event rioting, OSU President Karen A. Holbrook and Mayor Michael B. Coleman created a task force that consists of faculty, administration, students, police officers and other city and university officials. The riot task force is charged with finding and understanding the root cause of campus disturbances.

“We are receiving help and advice from other universities, such as Michigan State, which experienced a disturbance similar to ours in 1999, and Ohio University,” said Rebecca Price, a student representative on the Riot Task Force. OSU has also been in contact with other Big Ten schools, and administrators learned in some cases more student programming has lessened the problems.

OSU students who are charged with participation in the riots are presumed innocent until clear-cut evidence is brought forth. The student can admit to the charges and be punished accordingly, but if the student denies involvement he or she may be granted a judicial hearing before Patrick Hall in the judicial affairs office. Students are is not sanctioned until they have a full and fair hearing.

A student, no matter what university he or she attends, is punished according to the school’s own student code of conduct.

“A change or modification to the code of conduct is a possibility to hold those who participate solely responsible,” Patrick Hall said.

Eddie Pauline, president of Undergraduate Student Government, said the issue of punishing students from other universities is a complicated one because there is no standard policy.

William Hall said he hopes the rioting problem at OSU and everywhere will someday be solved. The university is taking steps to make improvements, he said

“For those students involved in these disruptive acts — both OSU students and students from other universities — shows nothing but a lack of respect for authority,” Hall said.