UW band suspended, won't play Saturday's game

Mike Miller  —  10/05/2008 11:59 am

University of Wisconsin band dirctor Michael Leckrone announced Friday that the famed UW marching band has been suspended for Saturday night's nationally television game against Ohio State and won't play again until an investigation into allegations of hazing and inappropriate sexual activity is finished.

Leckrone and UW Dean of Students Lori Berquam declined to say where the latest alleged incidents occurred or talk in specifics about the allegations, but Leckrone said they involved "inappropriate alcohol use, hazing and sexual behavior."

The band was put on probation by former Chancellor John Wiley following a Sept. 23 trip to Michigan in 2006. He issued stern warnings that continued bad behavior would result in more repercussions for the band, including possible loss of performances and travel privileges and possible suspension of the band.

Friday's suspension follows a trip by the band to Michigan for last week's loss to the Wolverines, but the officials gathered Friday night at a new conference to announce the suspension declined to say it involved that trip.

But Leckrone did say he found out about the latest allegations at 3:45 p.m. Friday. "I just thought the allegations were serious enough there needed to be action right away," he said Friday night.

The university has had a band since 1885, Leckrone said after the news conference, and the band has been playing at Badger home football games since the 1920s.

"It's my best guess," he added, that Saturday will be the first time since then that the Badgers take the field without the band members playing "On Wisconsin" and other traditional UW songs.

Leckrone said some band members might show up at the game, given that they have tickets, "but we will not be there as a group."

He said as soon as he learned of the allegations he informed the UW Dean of Students Office, and Berquam and other UW officials showed up at the band practice. Leckrone said at 4:30 p.m. he told the band members they would not be playing for the Ohio State game, and said many of them appeared to be genuinely shocked by both the news of more inappropriate behavior and Leckrone's decision.

"My feeling is I hit them between the eyes with a sledgehammer," he said.

Both Leckrone and Berquam emphasized the band would not be allowed to perform again until the investigation into the latest allegations are complete. "We will be practicing next Tuesday," Leckrone said, but added "we won't perform until this is cleared up."

Leckrone went through similar turmoil in 2006 when then Chancellor Wiley placed the group on probation for strikingly similar allegations during that year's trip to Michigan. At the time, Leckrone, who had then served the UW for 38 years, said he would seriously consider resigning if the band was caught in the same predicament again.

Friday night, however, he said he is not considering such a move. "I've changed my attitude a little bit," he said. "I'm a teacher, and I'm going to teach these people the way to go in life," he said.

Leckrone also said that when Wiley told him the probation for the band was over, he told the band that it was not the end of monitoring the group's behavior and said he has taken several steps to head off a repeat of the 2006 problems.

That, he said, caused him to be more disappointed this time around.

He also said it was extremely difficult for him to tell the 300-member band they couldn't perform at the Camp Randall on Saturday. "You don't have any idea of how hard it was," the veteran band leader said.

Although Leckrone and Berquam both declined to say how many band members were involved in the latest incidents, Leckrone said it was probably "a couple of hands full," of members.

Last year Casey Nagy, an executive assistant to Wiley, said the band appeared to be on better behavior.

"We will continue to monitor, but we think the message was well received and behavior modified," Nagy said then. "The band is back to being one of the great assets of the institution, which it should be."

Wiley called the band's behavior on that 2006 Michigan trip, "boorish to patently dangerous and unlawful." That included semi-nude suggestive dancing by some members, and women being forced to kiss other women to be allowed to enter bathrooms on the band bus. One student complained he had his head shaved during the trip.

A female band member complained of being forced to suck on a sex toy during a hazing incident, while other women complained of being forced to draw pornographic pictures for older male band members, and recite obscene limericks.

Others said they were ordered to read aloud to older band members explicit accounts of their sexual preferences composed by others for them to read.

While the trip to Michigan led Wiley to put the band on probation, he said other issues of questionable conduct had occurred in previous years.

In early 2007 Assistant Band Director Michael Lorenz resigned his post while under investigation for his role in the infamous Michigan trip, in which he was accused of engaging in "unwelcome, intimidating, and frightening" behavior involving a woman on the trip.

Mike Miller  —  10/05/2008 11:59 am