Some of the mailboxes left standing after the riots early Sunday morning in the off-campus neighborhoods will be receiving important envelopes in the next few days.

“I will be delivering, this afternoon and tomorrow morning, 10 letters of interim suspension,” said William Hall, vice president for Student Affairs at Ohio State, at a press conference yesterday. Hall addressed the public about the investigation into the criminal activity that took place over the weekend.

After reviewing about 40 arrest records received from the Columbus Division of Police, the Office of Student Judicial Affairs found nine of those arrested were OSU students, Hall said. One other student was arrested by University Police, he said.

“We have not finalized reviewing all of the records at this point in time, so we will continue to do that,” Hall said. “I am anticipating that other students will be identified later.”

Hall said he received 48 arrest reports from the Columbus Division of Police on Sunday and an unspecified number of additional reports yesterday.

“The arrest records cite charges ranging from underage drinking to resisting arrest, public indecency, burning, criminal trespassing,” Hall said. “We will be taking appropriate disciplinary action within the university.”

Hall said once a student receives a letter of interim suspension, that student is barred from attending classes until his or her case is reviewed. A student under interim suspension has three days to appear in person to plead for a lifting of the suspension he said.

After this hearing, Hall said he may either put the suspension in abeyance — allowing the student to attend classes — or enforce the suspension until the case is heard by the judicial review board.

The review could take weeks, Hall said.

“In essence, some of them will lose one quarter, if not two. Some of them, based on the records we have today, could be expelled from the institution.

“Primarily, we are looking at those individuals that were responsible for the most egregious acts,” he said.

The severity of the disciplinary actions will be dependent on the circumstances surrounding each arrest. If a student is charged with a 1219 violation — a serious offense such as arson — he or she will be permanently barred from attending any of Ohio’s state-funded universities, Hall said. Last year’s riots resulted in four expulsions he said.

Hall encouraged those who participated in illegal activities to come foreward.

“It’s not the easy thing to do, but I would suggest it’s the right thing to do,” he said.

He said students have been calling in to identify other students involved in the riots. The posting of pictures on a Web site has been successful in apprehending students in prior riots and encourages those with photographs and videotapes of the disturbances this weekend to turn them over to the Office of Student Affairs.

Many of those arrested were not associated with the university.

“In the review of the record, we have noted a sizable number of out of town addresses,” Hall said.

The arrest records revealed some of the riot participants to be students from six other colleges — Bowling Green, Pittsburgh, Kentucky, Capital, Baldwin-Wallace and the University of Toledo. Information on these arrests will be shared with the students’ respective universities.

In addition, about five of those arrested were identified as alumni of OSU, with the possibility of more being identified as the investigation progresses. University officials are debating on whether to take action against these alumni, such as withholding athletic tickets, he said.

“We have a problem in our society where this kind of behavior is happening over and over again,” he said. “This behavior is learned and engrained before (students) get to Ohio State University or California or Kentucky.”

He said he blamed the consumption of alcohol for the riots and he expressed his approval for the way the police handled the situation. The residences in the area lend themselves well to these types of situations, because of they have little open space and balconies that almost overhang the street.

“We have hundreds of students at times climbing on to those balconies, and large amounts of alcohol consumed,” he said.