Stanford Band No Longer Banned From Stanford Land For Not Aligning With Stanford Brand

A little over a month ago, the Stanford band was suspended through the Spring 2017 quarter for a slate of alcohol problems and other conduct policy violations. A university conduct board recommended suspending them through the end of next school year (meaning they’d be back for the 2018 football season at the earliest), but they escaped that harsh sentence. This afternoon, Stanford provost John Etchemendy ended the band’s suspension early and placed them back in provisional status. They can now resume banging on sinks and being totally quirky.

The band claimed that the school was attempting to silence the band in an effort to sanitize their outlandishness and preserve the school’s well-manicured image (which is of a prestigious place to go get an engineering degree before you work for a big tech company or start your own). Etchemendy, who is stepping down as provost next week, said that the band’s current suspension “would pose almost as severe an existential threat as the 18-month suspension initially recommended.” The band will still have sanctions imposed on it, but they’ll be allowed back immediately:

These sanctions have one goal: to more clearly define and implement the operational and cultural changes sketched in Section III of the Band’s appeal. While I am completely confident that the present leadership will make this happen, if progress toward this goal does not continue, the university will be forced to reassess whether additional measures need to be taken.

Now they can get back to pissing off Midwesterners and performing indecipherable numbers at halftime of Stanford losses.

h/t OldBeigeGuy