From a traffic-clogged Route 1 to long-standing concerns over public safety, there is no shortage of issues relevant to students in the upcoming senatorial primary.
But noticeably absent from the race between incumbent Sen. John Giannetti and challenger Jim Rosapepe is discussion of an issue that is exclusive to and one of the most debated among university students: Riots and riot policy.
“The riot policy is extremely important,” Student Government Association President Emma Simson said. “Obviously with the number of students that go down to Route 1 after basketball games, the ramifications on students is important to them.”
State senators do not have a direct role in crafting the riot policy, but they can wield significant leverage around Annapolis. State senators are increasingly looked to on city-university issues because they represent a wide swath of the area where the campus is located.
In addition, Rosapepe previously served as a member of the Board of Regents, which discussed tightening the punishments for riot policy in recent years.
Neither candidate has formally addressed the issue in debate or made it a significant aspect of their platform, which is mostly aimed at area Democratic primary voters who historically outnumber students at the polls.
“I haven’t heard about it from anyone,” Rosapepe said. “It’s not an issue in the race, he hasn’t brought it up in any debate. John and I, as far as I know, are in agreement on it.”
Riot policy has been the attention of student and university officials alike over the last several years, with the University Senate passing a new policy in April allowing the university to suspend or expel students without a court conviction.
While the current policy no longer requires a court conviction for a student to be disciplined, tighter restrictions were inevitable, said former SGA President Andrew Rose said.
“What was going to happen was a zero-tolerance policy where even if you were there just watching the riot, you could be expelled,” Rose said. “That sort of policy is unacceptable. We clarified in the wording what is and what isn’t an expendable offense.”
The rioting issue was left out of Giannetti’s 24-Point Plan of policy initiatives that he intends to prioritize in Annapolis if reelected, as was higher education, although he said previous discussions about expelling students who receive probation before judgment were appalling.
At a regents meeting in February 2005, just one week after men’s basketball team won its home game against Duke, Rosapepe presented a motion to the board requesting that the university’s riot policy be reevaluated because it did not allow for students to be punished if they were granted probation before judgment in court, according to recordings of the meeting.
Probation before judgment, or PBJ, is granted by a judge in some cases when someone agrees to serve a probationary period in exchange for no judgment from the court – especially in cases where an offender has no previous record.
During the meeting, Rosapepe cited one such case where a student was given a PBJ after being taken to court for rioting.
“He did it, he admitted he did it. He was not convicted on a technicality,” Rosapepe said at the 2005 meeting.
Rosapepe said he wanted a review of the policy because, at the time, the university could only discipline a student if they were convicted.
But as the year progressed, and as student leaders worked with the board and the university to develop a more flexible policy, Rosapepe denied ever taking such a hard line against students.
Former SGA Chief of Staff Devin Ellis said Rosapepe switched his stance and began to champion himself as one of the leaders in setting a fair, flexible policy.
“It’s certainly true that Jim modified his stance. Whatever he felt would be most beneficial to his election, he did,” Ellis said. “Once it was clear he was going to run, he geared himself to get votes. Throughout the process of working with Rosapepe, my impression was certainly that he had the interest of the residents of College Park ahead of the students. That’s his prerogative, but since he was at the time a Regent, it seemed to us at the time like a very political stance that he was taking.”
However, Rosapepe said that his discussions of PBJ have been blown out of proportion saying, “there are big issues that aren’t important issues.”
When asked yesterday whether he supported, or now supports disciplining students who agree to probation before judgment, Rosapepe flatly denied ever doing so.
On Wednesday, Giannetti said he would be open to hearings in Annapolis on taking legislative action should students ever get expelled as a result of a probation before judgment.
Contact reporter Steven Overly at overlydbk@gmail.com and Owen Praskievicz at praskieviczdbk@gmail.com.
