Fan Violence Sparks Cornell Report

Perhaps the most serious confrontation at Cornell's home hockey loss to Harvard earlier this season did not occur on the ice, but in the stands.

On the ice, an ugly display of violence culminated with Cornell Captain Mike Schaffer attempting to hit Harvard Coach Bill Cleary with a slapshot. At the game's conclusion, Schaffer tried to run Cleary into the boards.

Cornell lost the game, 11-3, but some unruly student fans who wanted to match the ice-bound confrontations battled with their own campus police to a hotly contested draw.

The incident began during the third period of the December 8 contest, when Cornell Public Safety Officers entered the crowd to apprehend a foul character who had tied a dead chicken to the Harvard goal, according to Marc S. Lacey, a reporter for the Cornell Daily Sun.

"One of the officers lost his hat, went up to one of the students whom he thought had it and took him outside [of the rink]," Lacey said.

With night sticks drawn, several policemen confronted the student and nine of his fraternity brothers, who had followed him out for moral support.

When one of the students attempted to flee, a safety officer chased him and dropped his gun. The officer failed to notice that it was missing until another student pointed it out, according to Lacey.

One Sun reporter who witnessed the altercation attempted to take down the names and badge numbers of the officers at the scene, but his request was denied.

The students involved claimed that they were unjustly harassed and called the officers negligent in their handling of the situation.

The Department of Public Saftey finished its review of events in early Febuary but refused to release the report.

The official police report, conducted by a university official in charge of the Department of Public Safety, interviewed only police officers. Some students and administrators questioned the objectivity of the report's conclusions.

Because the university wanted to regain the "trust" of the student body, according to one official, ombudsman John W. Dewire has launched his own investigation into the incident. This "independent review" has questioned students as well as policemen.