By David Gordon, associate editor
The five University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire football players involved in a racially-charged November Snapchat conversation are still enrolled at UW-EC.
This seems to indicate that whatever disciplinary measures the university invoked in the wake of the posting did not include suspending or expelling them.
The names of two of the five students who exchanged the racist Snapchat messages no longer appear in the university’s online directory but they are still officially enrolled, according to Mike Rindo, UW-EC’s Assistant Chancellor for Facilities and University Relations. In response to a question from the CVPost, Rindo replied in an email that a “data base check of directory information indicates both of the individuals are listed as enrolled at UW-Eau Claire.”
As of Friday morning (Jan. 10), the other three students whose names appeared in the Snapchat exchange were included in the UW-EC online directory listing and were also enrolled, according to Rindo. He noted that the most accurate directory information is in an internal university data base that is not available to the general public.
UW-EC has released no information about the specific penalties imposed on the five student-athletes who exchanged the racist Snapchat messages, other than announcing that they were suspended from the football team. Chancellor James Schmidt cited the requirements of the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) as the basis for this.
Schmidt said he was advised by Wade Harrison, UW-System senior legal counsel, that FERPA requires non-disclosure of the “final results of any disciplinary proceeding” without the written consent of the student involved. A document prepared by the U.S. Department of Education to provide guidance in regard to FERPA states that a school “may not generally disclose personally identifiable information” from students’ education records without such consent.
Several knowledgeable sources have confirmed to the CVPost that the five students’ names are known around the UW-EC campus. The Post has – unsuccessfully – urged that UW-EC release whatever sanctions it has imposed on the student-athletes, without identifying them, and has argued that this would not violate FERPA requirements because it would fall short of being “personally identifiable information.”
NOTE: The “Comments” sections following The Spectator’s early reports on this situation indicate that it may have some very complex undercurrents. At this point in its coverage, the CVPost is unable either to endorse or reject any of the statements found in those comments. If you are interested in reading the comments for yourself, click here and here and scroll down to the end of each story.