SUNY Geneseo women's volleyball team suspended following underage drinking party

Posted at: 09/05/2012 11:10 PM | Updated at: 09/06/2012 12:04 AM
By: Lynette Adams | WHEC.com

The Livingston County District Attorney says charges are likely in an off-campus drinking party that involved members of the SUNY Geneseo women's volleyball team, and sent one student to the hospital over the weekend.

The college has suspended the volleyball team until police complete their investigation.

The District Attorney says the party happened at an off-campus apartment on Court Street, right across the street from the Geneseo campus.

News10NBC is told it involved members of the women's volleyball team.

"Typical college party- someone of age provides alcohol. Someone under age consumes alcohol. I think in this case, clearly someone was injured as a result of that, so that's something that causes attention to be drawn to this," DA Greg McCaffrey says.

Early Sunday morning, police were called about an intoxicated woman. It was a college student; a teen who had had too much to drink. The DA says peer pressure from upper-class members of the team may have played a role in the incident.

"Anytime you have a minor consuming alcohol, the goal in this community and probably most places  is to find out where they received the alcohol, who purchased it, who provided it and obviously just the safety of our community members," McCaffrey says.

SUNY Geneseo's Vice President for Student and Campus Life says the college doesn't have specific or verified information about the incident and is cooperating fully with police and the DA.

In addition, Dr. Robert Bonfiglio says SUNY Geneseo takes any report of underage drinking very seriously.

News10NBC talked with students about this. No one seemed to know much about this party, but some students were not surprised to hear what happened.

"It's definitely something that happens a lot...there's an ambulance here at least once a weekend and I definitely think it's a problem here," Junior Ashley Palacios says.

Some students see it differently.

Senior Leslye Burleson tells News10NBC, "I think it's worse on other campuses I visited. There's like frats having outdoor parties, and everyone's not 21. I think it's safer here."

Other students are questioning the college's discipline.

"I don't know if it's fair to all the team. I think they should suspend the people that caused the problem, not everyone should get in trouble for it," says Senior Heather Matthews.

The volleyball team cannot practice or play until the investigation has been completed. That is expected to happen Thursday morning when the DA meets with Geneseo police. Any charges will likely come on Thursday.

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