Ohio State is enforcing social distancing guidelines for off campus house parties. Students who are caught at gatherings by the university may be faced with Student Conduct charges and possible suspension. Credit: Owen Milnes | Campus Producer
On Saturday, during the peak of Welcome Weekend at Ohio State — a time when the University District is normally teeming with college students fresh off a hot summer — Dan Pitts was celebrating his 22nd birthday when he got an email from a case manager in the Office of Student Conduct.
In the email was a link to an official letter informing him he was placed under interim suspension because he hosted a large gathering at his house on East Frambes Avenue.
But Pitts doesn’t live on East Frambes Avenue anymore, and he didn’t throw a party there, either.
“It was on Thursday, Aug. 20, and I had work the next day at 7:30 [a.m.], so I was sound asleep in my apartment,” Pitts, a fourth-year in operations and logistics management, said. He currently lives in an apartment complex on High Street.
End-of-summer parties cropped up in students’ houses and apartments once many students moved back to campus, leading to concerns about COVID-19 outbreaks before classes even began. Vice President for Student Life Melissa Shivers said in an email Friday that dozens of Student Conduct cases were open against students who hosted or attended parties near campus.
Students under interim suspension are not permitted on campus and are not allowed to participate in any university activities.
As of Monday afternoon, 228 students were under interim suspension for violating the Code of Student Conduct and the Together as Buckeyes Pledge, Student Life spokesperson Dave Isaacs said in an email. He said this number does not include students who confirmed they lived at a different residence.
“Student Life Student Conduct is now going through all the information submitted by students in this regard and will review and clear all credible requests today,” Isaacs said.
Virginia Pajor, a fourth-year in hospitality management, said that she and another one of her five roommates were suspended after her next-door neighbors held a gathering of about 25 people on the front porch of their duplex on East Woodruff Avenue Thursday. Pajor said her neighbors invited her and two other roommates to join the gathering, but they declined the offer and remained indoors. Her other two roommates were not home that night.
Student Life teams in Ohio State vehicles patrolled the off-campus area to report gatherings of more than 10 people to Student Conduct over the weekend, university spokesperson Ben Johnson said.
Pajor received her suspension letter from Student Conduct Saturday. She was given a contact for the office whom she reached out to in order to plead her case.
“I’m basically not allowed on campus. I can’t go to in-person classes — can’t use any of the facilities,” Pajor said. “I’m suspended from all of my student organizations until my case is resolved, whatever that means.”
Pajor said she and her roommate who was suspended lived in the house last year, so their address was already listed in BuckeyeLink. She suspects that is why their three roommates who moved in this year were not reprimanded.
Pitt’s address was not yet updated in BuckeyeLink. Neither was Kayley Little’s, a fifth-year in psychology, who was at her parents’ house in Dublin, Ohio, when she received her suspension letter Saturday.
“I haven’t even been on campus since the last day we moved everything out in July,” Little said. She is taking two online classes this semester and is technically enrolled at the Newark campus.
Little and her roommates, who graduated in the spring, moved out over the summer, and Little said she was surprised Student Conduct didn’t contact her or otherwise confirm she was still living at the house before suspending her.
“If they looked into it and looked who the landlord was, they easily could have asked my landlord and he would have said we moved out in July,” Little said.
According to copies of the Student Conduct letters The Lantern received, students who no longer live at the residence under investigation or who were not at the gathering are instructed to submit evidence to their assigned case manager. For Little and Pitts, that means proving their current place of residence — whether it be a copy of their leases or their latest utility bills. Until then, they are under interim suspension.
Although Little said she was not planning on being on campus anyway, she is worried about the potential ramifications of having an open Student Conduct case against her.
“I’m applying for grad school, so if anyone checks, if they for some reason look and see that I’m suspended, I’m dropped out of applications right there and then,” Little said.
For Pitts, the impact of the suspension was immediate. He was unable to attend the Involvement Fair Sunday as an executive board member of Block O and is unable to work at his on-campus job. According to the letter, if he is found on campus, he could be charged with criminal trespassing.
Pitts said he submitted evidence of his new residence to his case manager and that she told him Monday that Ryan Lovell, the interim dean of students, would recommend his suspension be lifted.
“It’s not technically lifted until the dean of students lifts it himself,” Pitts said. He said his case manager has not yet told him when it will be finalized.
Both Little and Pitts said they wish Student Conduct handled reports differently.
“I get that they’re trying to be safe and everything, but you’d think that they’d try to confirm it a little more,” Little said.
Pitts said that although it was easy to submit his proof of residence, he would have appreciated it if Student Conduct gave him notice before placing him under interim suspension.
“The university is going to inadvertently have some unintended consequences for students who did nothing wrong,” Pitts said.
