By Melissa Boyd (Whetstone Staff Writer)

Senior Linnea Cavallo became infuriated April 30 as she watched three sorority girls attempt to steal more than 25 copies of last year’s final issue of The Whetstone from the rack in front of The Whetstone office.

“I was hurt,” she said. “There were some of my articles in that issue and on the front page. I put a lot of hard work into the articles I wrote and having them steal the papers and defacing them made me mad.”

The front-page article, “Theta Phi Alpha suspended for 5 years for hazing,” featured the sorority’s hazing activities last year that had led to the national and school decision to suspend the organization.

Professor Victor Greto, media arts professor and adviser for The Whetstone, said papers were distributed around campus at 8:30 a.m. April 30. By 10 a.m., a student in his journalism class had told him he had seen students taking them by stacks.

“I went to security and reported it to Walt [Beaupre, head of safety and security] after confirming the student was correct,” he said. “I met with several members of the sorority and Walt in the security office and the girls pulled out copies from their backpacks.”

Greto estimated about 100 copies were stolen and about half of the copies were returned. After meeting with security and the members, he replaced the stolen copies in the College Center lobby.

“Walt then noticed that front pages of the copies I had replaced in the lobby had been ripped out,” he said. “Additional copies were also taken from the library.”

The interim dean of students, Colleen DiRaddo, met with the students, the editor of The Whetstone, Beaupre and Greto.

“DiRaddo confirmed the accuracy of the article,” Greto said. “I thought the issue was done but, about an hour later, three sorority members came up to The Whetstone office and took piles again. I questioned them but they walked away without putting them back. I got up [from my chair in my office] and followed them to the elevator when the girl holding the piles finally, and disrespectfully, handed them back to me.”

Greto said he was surprised the girls came up to The Whetstone office to steal more papers.

“I thought it was amazing that they just kept taking them, even after talking with members several times,” he said.

Kevin Hansbury, director of residence life, was the leading judicial reviewer on the case. He said seven students were documented by security as involved in the incident.

Six of the seven returned to Wesley and two were declared not involved after an investigation.

“I do not know why the seventh did not return,” he said. “If that student chooses to reapply to Wesley, the student will still have to go through the conduct changes.”

Of the six returning students, he determined only four were involved.

The charges included theft, vandalism and/or abuse/misuse of property, and failure to comply.

“The case is closed and has been resolved,” Hansbury said. “It didn’t go to judicial hearing because the four involved accepted the responsibilities of the sanction.”

Hansbury said he could not release the specific students’ sanctions due to Family Educational Rights Privacy Act.

“Our conduct process is designed to be educational and hold students accountable,” he said. “We want students to learn, to develop and grow.”

Cavallo said non-reporters don’t understand the amount of work reporters put into the articles.

“It was very disrespectful to all of the reporters than put time and energy into the articles they wrote,” she said.

She said The Whetstone covers all news, good and bad.

“If they didn’t want an article in the paper that could give them a bad image, they should never have hazed in the first place,” she said. “I think it was immature that they tried taking the newspapers.”