Former members of HillTV submitted a formal appeal Tuesday to Dean of Students Anastasia Urtz requesting that the Syracuse University administration reconsider the disbandment of the station.

The 21-page letter, obtained by The Daily Orange, details HillTV’s stance that the student organization was not permitted proper due process through Judicial Affairs for violations of the Student Code of Conduct. The letter says Chancellor Nancy Cantor and other SU administrators present at the meeting with the senior staff of HillTV last week revoked the group’s recognition as a student organization without giving them a chance to respond to the charges.

‘There was some conversation, but we did not accept responsibility or plead guilty or anything like that,’ said Rich Levy, former general manager of HillTV, who also signed the appeal letter.

The letter appeals the administration’s decision to disband HillTV based on eight topics, which include the distinction that HillTV as an organization distributes content and does not produce it, a challenge to Cantor’s statement that HillTV members were given a chance to answer the charges against them and policies of the Judicial System Handbook were violated for not allowing due process of the violations against HillTV.

The letter also said members of HillTV who were not involved with ‘Over the Hill’ wanted their names cleared by the university.

Emily Wasco, former entertainment director at HillTV, also signed the letter and said the reason the students’ names should be cleared is because of comments made at both the town hall meeting and speak-out held last week.

‘Essentially, everyone lumped all 250-plus members as sexists and bigots … and every other word you can think of that would show we’re racist,’ Wasco said.

Levy said Urtz told the HillTV members at last week’s meeting with Cantor that they could write a letter of appeal to her. When Levy and others went to Urtz’s office Oct. 21 for more specific details on the appeal process, Urtz’s secretary told them to submit a letter to Urtz with as much detail as possible.

The former HillTV members will wait for a response from Urtz until Tuesday, Levy said, which will give her a full week to respond. Levy would not comment on his plan of action if Urtz or another SU administrator does not respond by then.

Urtz did not return phone calls left at her office.

Another detail used in the letter to refute Cantor’s arguments that the senior HillTV members were not allowed to respond to the charges against them is that Josh McIntosh, senior associate director of the Office of Greek Life and Experiential Learning, asked HillTV members to leave Watson Studios about 10 minutes before last week’s meeting with Cantor had begun. The locks to the studio were also changed at this time, Wasco said.

Levy said as he and the other senior HillTV members waited outside Cantor’s office to meet with her, they received calls from some of the HillTV members whom McIntosh asked to leave the studios.

When the meeting with Cantor began, the HillTV members ‘were not given the opportunity to go into detail about actions taken,’ Levy said.

If the SU administration accepts the appeal and overturns its decision, the letter outlines new goals and objectives for a reformatted student-run television station.

Published on October 27, 2005 at 12:00 pm