PALO ALTO — The fun-loving and occasionally controversial Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band — perhaps better known for antics like pulling off a Rose Bowl halftime show so offensive that ESPN cut away from it — is a thing of the past.
The band will be temporarily suspended through next spring and reconstituted under a professional director, university officials said Friday. The members and other students received the news a week before finals.
A campus Organization Conduct Board (OCB) found that the band recently violated the campus alcohol policy, as well as bans on drinking and traveling. The band was already in hot water for previous violations, and the board found the recent violations “incredibly troubling and indicative of a systemic cultural problem,” according to a letter from the board.
“We do not feel that the current leadership or membership is capable of creating the necessary cultural change,” the OCB panel wrote in a letter. “We feel there is a total lack of accountability and responsibility in the current organization.”
The university said the band will lose its status as a registered student organization. The suspension includes loss of access to the Band Shak, band funds and all benefits, rights and privileges members receive.
The OCB panel recommended a harsher punishment that would have required the band to be suspended and lose recognition for nearly two academic years, but the Provost imposed the shorter temporary suspension instead.
In a statement released Friday, the university said it will be looking “to develop a new organizational framework under the leadership of a new music director.”
A current member of the Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band who declined to use his name said there is no current music director. In the past, the music director was jointly selected by the administration, alumni and band leaders.
The band member feared that “it will not retain any of its same character” under the new direction.
But Stanford University spokeswoman Lisa Ann Lapin assured that that would not happen.
“There will be a transition committee that will work over the next six months, including band alumni, but full composition to be determined,” she said.
In May 2015, the band was barred from performing at away athletic events for the 2015-16 academic year as a result of an investigation that found the band violated policies on sexual harassment, alcohol, controlled substances and hazing.
The band requested approval to attend this year’s Rose Bowl game based on its progress and meeting the university’s expectations. The request was granted, but it resulted in more trouble for the band. During that performance, the band was booed off the field during its halftime show that included a makeshift cow costume, cow tipping, and the FarmersOnly.com jingle.
The member, who performed in that halftime show on Jan. 1, said the band was “making a very good faith effort to address the issues,” but several members felt like the board set up the process with the intention that the band would fail.
“They basically put us through a series of hoops,” the band member said. “We participated in all these trainings. They asked about our traditions, we submitted documentation. They have been continually displeased. They kept moving the target.”
He added that the current band members are paying for past allegations made against musicians and performers who are no longer in the band.
“A lot of those allegations stem from 2011. When that report came out in 2015, those band members were not in the band,” the band member said.
But the university reported violations as recent as this academic year.
The band faced alcohol violations on campus this fall quarter, said Lapin. There was also an off-campus trip to Lake Tahoe paid for with band funds.
The band and its traditions aren’t expected to be completely overhauled, though, as campus officials affirm that some things won’t change.
“Stanford treasures the band and its irreverence, its scatter-band tradition and the tree and the dollies,” Lapin said. “No one expects those elements to change.”
Staff writer Jason Green contributed to this report.
