One of two McDaniel College students who were involved in a brawl that had racial overtones last year was suspended for two semesters for violating the college's conduct code that prohibits physical abuse, the college Honor and Conduct Board announced yesterday.
The board's decision comes more than two months after the students were charged in Carroll County District Court with assaulting two sophomores during a fight that broke out in November on the Westminster campus.
The charges against the two students in that court have been dropped, but new charges have been filed in Carroll County Circuit Court.
Both students went before the college Honor and Conduct Board in late November in connection with the incident, but only one was sanctioned by the college.
The board made its decision Nov. 24 but released it yesterday after allowing for an appeals process, a college spokeswoman said. She declined to name the suspended student.
After the suspension, which began this semester, the student's return to the college is contingent on the completion of a substance abuse and anger management treatment program, according to the board's decision.
"The college took this matter very seriously and handled it with genuine consideration," said Philip Sayre, McDaniel's vice president and dean of student affairs.
The fight broke out early Nov. 6 after a group of McDaniel students returned to campus on a chartered bus from a trip to Baja Beach Club in Baltimore, according to court documents. The trip was not sponsored by the college.
An exchange involving racial slurs began among students on the bus and escalated into a fistfight after they reached campus, the documents stated.
The fight left one student with a broken finger and 40 stitches to close a wound to his jaw and neck, court documents stated. Another student suffered minor injuries, police said at the time.
Nicholas G. Alevrogiannis, 22, of Westminster, a former stand-out football player and fifth-year student at McDaniel, is accused of using racial slurs during the confrontation, documents show.
Alevrogiannis and a second student, Thomas E. "Scoots" Crowell, 24, of Brinklow in Montgomery County, are accused of assaulting two black students during the incident. Each is charged with five misdemeanors: two counts of second-degree assault, one count of conspiracy to commit second-degree assault, and two counts of racial or religious harassment.
Alevrogiannis also is charged with an additional count of conspiracy to commit first-degree assault.
A trial date has been scheduled for both students March 22 in Carroll County Circuit Court.