Judge denies injunction request by student accused of sexual misconduct
By JASON McFARLEY
News Editor
A St. Joseph County judge Friday upheld the University's suspension of Ryan Hoadley for an alleged sexual assault of a female Notre Dame student.
Superior Court Judge Roland Chamblee denied Hoadley's motion for a preliminary injunction that would have lifted the two-year suspension.
Hoadley filed suit against Notre Dame in late November, alleging that the University breached its contract with him because a University disciplinary held following an alleged sexual assault was unfair and impartial.
The ruling gives the University confidence it can win the suit, said University spokesman Dennis Moore.
Notre Dame officials determined in October that Hoadley, of Wexford, Pa., violated the school's sexual misconduct policy and permanently dismissed the junior business student. University President Father Edward Malloy in November lessened the punishment to two-year suspension without guarantee of readmission.
In the absence of the court order, Hoadley, who lived off campus as a student this semester, will remain suspended throughout the duration of the suit. The suit also seeks a permanent injunction that in effect would lift the Office of Residence Life and Housing's and Malloy's punishment of Hoadley.
In his ruling Friday, Chamblee said Hoadley wasn't likely to succeed at trial with the breach-of-contract claim. The contract at issue, according to the judge, was du Lac, the student handbook.
"Various decisions from other states appear to vest broad discretion in a university in formulating and enforcing reasonable rules and regulations for the discipline of students," Chamblee wrote in his six-page ruling. "The judiciary has recognized that a private institution, as compared to a public institution, has the power to create, administer and implement its own rules and procedures concerning the qualifications and conduct of its students, staff and faculty."
"The fact remains we are a private institution with our own rules and standards," Moore said. "As long as we keep showing we are fair in our upholding of our rules and standards we should not have a problem."
Chamblee deemed the disciplinary procedures outlined in the handbook "fair and reasonable." He noted that University disciplinary hearings afford charged students with many of the same rights as defendants would receive in court, including the opportunity to testify and present witnesses and to appeal.
The ruling seemingly gives the University the go-ahead to punish students as administrators see fit.
"The relationship between a private university and its students is essentially a private one, and absent some showing of state involvement, their disciplinary proceedings do not implicate the full panoply of due process guarantees," Chamblee wrote.
Contact Jason McFarley at mcfarley.1@nd.edu.
All News Stories for Tuesday, December 11, 2001
