Wildcat report on the Phi Psi hearing:

The Greek Standards Board has found the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity not responsible for the theft of 10,000 Daily Wildcat newspapers on Oct. 8, according to the board’s official final report released on Friday afternoon.

In its final report, the Greek Standards Board outlined several reasons for its decision.

Information that worked against the Daily Wildcat during judicial deliberation included incidents surrounding the Spanish homework found among a pile of thousands of the stolen newspapers on West Anklam Road on Oct. 9.

Given that Daily Wildcat employees found the stolen newspapers, the board decided the evidence did not show the fraternity was responsible for the theft.

Instead of in an official court of law where the defendant must be proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, Daily Wildcat representatives were only charged with the task of showing the fraternity more likely than not responsible for the theft, according to official Greek Standards Board procedures.

The final report also cites Phi Kappa Psi’s police report issued to the University of Arizona Police Department on Oct. 9, where the fraternity claims that “Phi Kappa Psi members saw individuals going through their trash can.”

4:30 p.m. update — The Dean of Students office contacted the Daily Wildcat on Friday to ask staff members if they could testify in the newspaper theft case.

—

Although the fraternity said the incident occurred on the night of Oct. 8 or the morning of Oct. 9, police records show that Phi Kappa Psi members did not call the police until 3:46 p.m., well after the Daily Wildcat reported finding the homework of Phi Kappa Psi members Alex Cornell and Nick Kovaleski at the scene of the stolen newspapers.

The Greek Standards Board hearing testimony of Advertising Manager Mike Spohn was also questioned in the board’s final report.

Spohn testified that he saw three individuals loading Daily Wildcat newspapers into a tan Toyota Camry on Oct. 8 around 8 a.m.

The board’s final report noted that the vehicle associated with the theft was never officially linked to Phi Kappa Psi and that the three men were not officially identified as belonging to the fraternity.

Also noted in the report was that “only three men were ever seen taking copies of the Daily Wildcat,” a finding proven false by witnesses who saw other individuals in a black car stealing newspapers on the morning of Oct. 8, information Daily Wildcat representatives expressed to the Greek Standards Board at the official hearing held on Wednesday.

The board also stated as a reason for its ruling that “the Daily Wildcat stated that Phi Kappa Psi fraternity never denied involvement in the issue” while presenting in the final report that the fraternity did deny involvement in an interview with Fraternity and Sorority Programs on Oct. 8 and also denied involvement in a letter sent to the Greek Standards Board prior to the hearing.

Daily Wildcat representatives never claimed Phi Kappa Psi leadership denied involvement, but rather that they had never denied involvement to the Daily Wildcat, according to written transcripts of the Greek Standards Board hearing that featured both Phi Kappa Psi and Daily Wildcat leadership.

The board found the two e-mails entered into evidence as showing Phi Kappa Psi responsible for the theft as unreliable, finding that in one case, the sender’s “account could not be considered without the ability to question her in person,” the final report said.

The other e-mail sender, mathematics freshman Brennan Vincent, submitted a letter to the Greek Standards Board stating his intentions regarding his e-mail message had been misconstrued, according to the report.

“He wrote in his letter that he had implicated Phi Kappa Psi in his letter only because he didn’t believe the Daily Wildcat would print a letter where he solely stated that the reporting of the Daily Wildcat was irresponsible,” the report said.
Cross Examiniation:

Cross examination questioning of Daily Wildcat Managing Editor Shain Bergan by Phi Kappa Psi President Keith Peters:

Peters: It was stated that your director and Michael Spohn went out looking for the newspapers. Was there anybody else with them when they discovered they were missing?

Bergan: I believe it was just Mike and (Arizona Student Media Director) Mark (Woodhams) walking around. Obviously they were able to cover a lot of ground between the two of them.

Peters: OK, it was already stated by (Production Manager) Fred Smith that it takes his guys over an hour by truck, with two of them, to drive to 100 stands. What was the timeline like before they found out that all of the Wildcats were missing? Because you reported it to be around 9 a.m., and I just don’t understand how two people can walk to 100 stands around campus that it takes two men to drive over an hour.

Bergan: Well, we had other students calling in and telling us that papers were missing around stands around campus. And readers too, and readers were leaving comments online like, “Do you know you have no papers out on campus?” So, obviously it’s going to take less time for two guys to run out and check out a bunch of stands than it is for a couple of people to go out, jump out, grab a bunch of Wildcats, throw them in the car, somehow evade detection from everybody else and then drive away.

Peters: So are you saying these two guys did not actually visit all 100 stands to check for the Daily Wildcats?

Bergan: Did Mike and Mark cover all of the stands? Just on campus, or—?” I don’t know if they visited every single one of them.

Peters: So would it be possible that students actually took the Wildcat to read?

Bergan: By 9 a.m.?

Peters: By some—at least some, if not most, of those stands?

Bergan: No, that never happens. This is all very immaterial.

Peters: OK

Bergan: That would’ve had to be a fucking kickass issue, though.

Peters: So how many stands do you think they could’ve visited in that timeframe, in an hour or less than an hour?

Bergan: Are you asking me to speculate?

Peters: Yes, to the best of your ability.

Bergan: I don’t know if I can speculate. I’m not them. I didn’t see them. I got up when they sent me an e-mail around 9:00 saying that all our papers were stolen.

Peters: Sure, OK. I guess this question might not seem like it pertains to the case, but if I asked you right now if you wanted to go to Gentle Ben’s after this, and you said, “No, I don’t want to go there,” would you think that would be a correct response?

Bergan: Are you asking if I want to go to Gentle Ben’s with you?

Peters: I just need a simple yes or no.

Bergan: I’d probably ask you why you stole all my newspapers.

Peters: Would you think that that—Can I have an actual answer?

Bergan: Would I go to Gentle B—I don’t understand. I don’t understand.

Chief Justice Jimmy Grout to Bergan: Please answer the question.

Peters: Would saying, “I don’t want to go there,” referring to Gentle Bens as—would that be a proper response? Would you use that response? Would you say that is reasonable to say that?

Bergan: (Kovaleski) didn’t say “there”. He said “out there”. This is the western outskirts of Tucson where these papers were. Obviously he said “out there” because he knew where he had dumped some of them.

Peters: I’m just asking for a yes or no.

Bergan: I might say, “Yeah, I’ll go there with you.” I might not say “out there”.

Peters: OK.

Check out this column I wrote.

What do you know, I tell everyone reading my column to leave Sarah Palin the hell alone! She’s old news, people, move on!!!

Read on

I’ve spent the past six weeks writing a UA Greek Life research story, and I just wanted to fill you in on where I’m at.

I talked to Senator Daniel Wallace two weeks ago and I’m planning on contacting the Dean of Students once again in light of the Phi Psi link to mass Wildcat theft . I hope to be done with this story by the end of the semester.

I’d like to thank all contributing sources and I applaud ASUA senators for transparency. I can’t exactly say the same for certain Deans of Students who won’t comment on anything, it seems.

So stay tuned for my big story!

Apparently, the charges against the chalk users on the UA campus are being dismissed.

Thank you, Evan Lisull and Jacob Miller for reminding the UA campus of the importance of free speech. It’s insane that it took so much fuss for the UA to finally realize the ridiculousness of these charges.

According to Sally Gradstudent:

Evan Lisull was detained, cited, and released by the UAPD at the SE intersection of University and Park. The charge was criminal damage, and the arrest occurred at 644 AM today, Monday, Sept. 28.

So far from what we know, he was arrested for participating in today’s reaction to the Jacob Miller arrest on Thursday. A group of students planned to write “Chalk is Speech” on ground surfaces (thereby abiding by the law as it is written) in an effort to exercise their right to free speech.

This blogger is on the side of Evan Lisull and I support his right to free speech.

Wildcat columnist Tiffany Kimmell argues in the Friday Wildcat that sex with no strings attached is the new relationship. She definitely has a point, as disappointing as it may be. Her best excerpt is in the third paragraph of the article:

Unfortunately, girls put a lot of pressure on each other to label and define relationships, even during the first few weeks of dating. A friend of mine use to ask me daily, “Is he your boyfriend yet? Do you want him to be your boyfriend? Where do you see your relationship going? Do you think he wants you to be his girlfriend?”

If you’ve just met up with a guy you like, there’s nothing more annoying than a friend who badgers you with such questions. It’s almost as if she wants to make you feel bad that the guy won’t immediately jump into a relationship with you. If you even want one in the first place, you’ll be unsatisfied, and you don’t need friends to remind you that he’s just not that into you.

Thanks, Tiffany, for reiterating that the college dating scene is not black and white. There are so many in-betweens and shades of gray.

I’m the new Opinions Editor of the Arizona Daily Wildcat college publication, but I’m of course continuing my blogging and staying faithful to the Arizona Desert Lamp blog. Keep reading my blog, the Wildcat, and the Desert Lamp for input on University of Arizona life. Soon enough, I plan on publishing a much-researched blog entry on a specific campus issue I’ve been obsessing over for months. Stay tuned!

Starting Saturday September 26, the SUMC UA Bookstore will celebrate banned books by making them all 20% for an entire week.

Here are some banned books that you can expect to see on sale:

Count me in on the banned book sale!

“Rape, like many things, is kind of a class matter. You have to not deserve it for the world to care even a little bit.” -Charles Bowden.

Though likely unrelated to rape, the recent Yale University grad student slaying reminds me of this quote. A young woman is found dead in a university building and the world acts as if this kind of thing is so unusual and shocking. Unfortunately, people are murdered everyday, and these tragedies aren’t publicized in the same manner.

An English professor used to talk about society’s fascination with the tragedies of women, and he mentioned Edgar Allan Poe’s Raven theme that the death of a beautiful woman is the most poetic thing in the world. Across the country, everyone knew when Chandra Levy, Laci Peterson, and Natalie Holloway went missing, and now, audiences are mourning the loss of Yale’s Annie Le.

Society can use this unfortunate event to be more cautious. Believe it or not, someone is unfairly killed more than once a year, the news just chooses not to give each case substantial amount of coverage.