Former President of the State University of New York at Albany's Phi Beta Sigma's Mu Iota Sigma chapter, Clarence L. McNeill:
"Clarence McNeill." Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity Incorporated, Mu Iota Sigma Chapter - Albany New York. http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/phibetasigma/Akin.html
"Clarence McNeill, president of the fraternity’s Mu Iota Sigma chapter" "Slade honored." UAlbany Update 25(14). April 11, 2002. University at Albany.http://www.albany.edu/pr/updates/apr11/tablecampus.htm
"Clay Aken" is the judicial administrator for the University at Albany. He signs his name something like "^ yMcNyl" with those printed letters connected by doodles at their tops - not properly a signature at all, really:
As the angelfire.com webpage states, "Brother Clarence McNeill joined the ranks of Phi Beta Sigma on June 30, 1999. He became interested in joining Sigma after speaking with two of it's [sic] member [sic], Brother Charles Rogers, and Brother Ekwo [sic] King. Both men were doing great things at the University of Albany, and Clarence wanted to be a part of it,. Clarence has served in a variety of leadership positions in Residential Life, and currently serves as the Director of Judicial Services [sic]."
"Brother Clarence serves as the Director of Judicial Affairs at SUNY Albany [sic]." http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/phibetasigma/Pictures.html
He actually was NOT the Director at the time that those pages were written (the latter is dated 2003). He was the Associate Director from 2003-2005, and became the director thereafter. Nothing like a bit of resumé inflation to help advance one's career.
His surname is sometimes spelled with one L at the end, sometimes two. Despite his having allegedly earned his degrees at the University at Albany, where he now works, different pages make different claims about what those degrees are:
BS Business Administration
MS Education Administration
CAS in progress [at that time]
"Degree: B.S. Business Administration, M.S. Education Administration, pursuing CAS" URL: http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/phibetasigma/Akin.html. Accessed: 2012-08-01. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/69bPXhT1n )
BA Education Administration
MA Education Administration
CAS Education Administration
"B.A — 95', M.A — 97' & C.A.S — 03' in Education Administration here at the University." URL: http://www.albany.edu/studentsuccess/clarence-mcneil.shtml . Accessed: 2012-08-01. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/69bPhCWKJ )
Note also above that the apostrophes are on the wrong side of the abbreviated years: 95' rather than '95.
BA Africana Studies
(MA or MS?) Education Administration & Policy Studies
CAS Education Administration & Policy Studies
"He earned his B.A in Africana Studies in 1995, Master's in Education Administration & Policy Studies in 1997 and his Certificate of Advanced Study in the same discipline."
URL: http://www.albany.edu/studentconduct/staff.shtml . Accessed: 2012-08-01. (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/69bPqNp53 )
http://www.albany.edu/studentconduct/staff.shtml has since migrated to http://www.albany.edu/studentconduct/staff.php but the inconsistencies regarding degrees and the spelling of his surname have been retained.
There's been yet another new webpage created making still further different claims about McNeill/McNeil's degrees. There's a "Clarence McNeill '95, '07" in one of the outermost rings on the left of the graphic displaying the names of alumni encircling the globe at http://www.albany.edu/ (image at http://www.albany.edu/hpfiles/homepage_banner_alumni.jpg ) It would be somewhat surprising if two men named Clarence McNeill graduated from UAlbany in 1995, but I suppose it's possible. I don't think the names and graduation dates are fictitious; Leroy Van Riper (third ring away from globe on right) really did graduate from UAlbany in 1970, for example: http://www.albany.edu/alumni/Minutes.htm and Stacy Wendroff (second circle) really graduated in 1993: http://www.albany.edu/alumni/council_of_classes.html If that entry represents the same person as McNeill/McNeil, what degree did he supposedly earn in 2007 from the University at Albany?
The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights sent me a letter about McNeill/McNeil. Evidently when McNeill/McNeil had e-mailed me a "warning" that I "need to forget about Prof. Barberich" that I'd reported to him for academic dishonesty, faculty ethics violations, sexual harassment, and retaliation, McNeill/McNeil had in fact known that the activity I was engaged in by reporting that professor was protected and that retaliation is prohibited. As such, McNeill/McNeil had to have known that intimidating and threatening me in writing was perhaps not such a good idea.
With respect to McNeill/McNeil's fraternity ties (with UAlbany being a school where there's been at least one hazing death, which was excused as a consensual accidental electrocution/drowning and not an act of hazing), what is the intersection of McNeil's fraternity and judicial systems like elsewhere? There's some indications of what the answer might be:
"incidents that are handled entirely by a school and not by criminal courts usually end in punishments that fall far short of jail time. Or, according to Eileen Stevens, the judicial board uses privacy concerns as an excuse for keeping the details of the punishment of student hazers from ever reaching the public. For example, the University of Georgia's judicial panel found members of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity guilty in the hazing of a school football player, Roderick Perrymond, in a secret session, and refused to divulge to the press which individuals were punished. Perrymond, twenty-one, had been hospitalized with bruised buttocks and broken blood vessels. He charged that three fraternity members—one the chapter adviser—had paddled him more than seventy times" (Wrongs of Passage 33-34).
Wrongs of Passage also mentions that the President of Phi Beta Sigma admitted his own involvement in hazing:
"A few national fraternity reformers, such as [...] former Phi Beta Sigma national president Charles Wright (now deceased), have disclosed to undergraduates their own former involvement in hazing, stressing that it caused people a great deal of pain" (Nuwer 2001, 47-48).
and that a member had been "found murdered in his car" in 1998 at the University of South Florida.
Nuwer, Hank. Wrongs of Passage: Fraternities, Sororities, Hazing, and Binge Drinking. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2001.
Phi Beta Sigma members at St. John's University were accused of allegedly beating a fraternity pledge to the extent that he went temporarily blind, had kidney failure, and urinated blood. If an article reprinted online http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/archive/index.php/t-59590.html quotes the original correctly, "Because the defendants are not charged with hazing, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail, Justice Daniel Lewis has barred attorneys from using that term during the trial. Instead, the attorneys may use initiation or pledging. Lewis himself is a member of the same fraternity". What business would a member of the fraternity have judging a case involving hazing done by members of his fraternity?
Unsurprisingly, the "Honorable" Judge Lewis found the members of his fraternity "innocent":
Shifrel, Scott. "3 Cleared In Hazing." N.Y. Daily News. December 14, 2004. http://articles.nydailynews.com/2004-12-14/news/18269085_1_paddling-co-defendants-hazing-ritual
UAlbany's chapter of that fraternity, Mu Iota Sigma seems to have had a bit of a fascistic fetish well beyond the fasces in the organization's emblem, judging from their "line names": http://www.albany.edu/~pbs/chapter.html (Archived by WebCite® at http://www.webcitation.org/6EBXvphuI ) "Wolf Pack", "Stormtrooper", "Evil Horde", "Turbulence", "Trauma", "Shockwave", "11 Ways to Die"? I'm not terribly familiar with fraternities, but I looked up what "line names" are. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore states, "Each line is given a line name that characterizes the entire line." McNeill's "Line/Designation" was "Apocalypse #1", the number evidently indicating he was first in those lines of identically-dressed men, marching around campus silently and expressionlessly in straight N/S and E/W lines but never in diagonals or curves (historically, with canes). What does it mean that the character of "Clay Aken" and that of his fraternity brothers, was one of "Apocalypse"?
It's one thing to study WWII history, or to watch horror movies, or whatever. To actually adopt fascist terminology and march around silently and expressionlessly, lacking individuality, like some kind of paramilitary group is kind of… puzzling? I never saw any men doing that while I was there, though, just a sorority doing the same, which was still a bit alienating to see. Why not join the real military or just be themselves?
"Clarence McNeill, Vice President of Judicial Affairs, states that the University does not violate student rights because when a complaint is filed there is process to determine whether or not the complaint is legitimate." http://thefire.org/article/6325.html
One of those things FIRE got wrong and has yet to fix....
McNeill, a bully, had the gall to sign an anti-bullying petition:
"I was bullied and witnessed bullying while growing up. I know how much of a negative impact bullying can have on a person's self-esteem and their ability to treat others with respect."
http://www.change.org/petitions/uabeyondbullying
When I'd been at the university, some women employed there confided that they were afraid to report bullying and sexual harassment by professors there. They saw my experience as confirmation of their fears. McNeill is one of the many people at UAlbany whose job appears to be the intimidation of victims and witnesses so that UAlbany can look on paper like a far safer, more enlightened campus than it really is. If what he wrote online is the truth, when he bullies students (possibly faculty and staff as well?) he knows just how much he's damaging people. His belief that victims of bullying tend not to treat others with respect is peculiar - perhaps he's projecting?
No comments:
Post a Comment