BRUNSWICK

The Bowdoin College men’s tennis team will forfeit games and be ineligible for postseason competition after school officials uncovered an unspecified incident of hazing.

The incident comes two years after the Bowdoin men’s hockey team was forced to vacate its first-ever conference title after discovery of hazing at an initiation.

College officials say they will impose more severe sanctions if such behavior continues.

“We’re disappointed in the fact that this occurred again on campus, but there is a clear social code and we hold our students to a high standard,” Bowdoin College Assistant Athletic Director for Communications Jim Caton told The Times Record today. “(Men’s tennis) Coach (Conor) Smith did everything that can be asked of a coach to prevent something like this, and the team was cooperative and realizes this step is appropriate.”

Dean of Students Tim Foster and Athletic Director Tim Ryan sent a letter Wednesday to students, faculty and staff stating that, as a result of the hazing, the team will forfeit four of its eight remaining matches — today, at home, against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Sunday at Williams College; Thursday, April 11 at Colby College and April 13 at Middlebury Colleges — and be ineligible for team and individual post-season competition.

Individual and team sanctions also will be forthcoming, according to the letter.

Doug Cook, director of news and media relations at Bowdoin, declined Thursday to say what any of the sanctions would be or when they would occur.

Cook also declined to answer questions about what specific actions constituted the hazing, how many students were involved or where and when they took place.

Neither Foster nor Bowdoin College President Barry Mills was made available for comment. The Times Record left messages with Smith and Ryan that were not immediately returned this morning.

The administration was alerted to the tennis team hazing last week by a student unaffiliated with the team, college officials said.

The letter from Foster and Ryan said: “Following a careful investigation that included interviews with and the cooperation of team members, we have established that the team engaged in activities that clearly violate the Bowdoin Social Code, as well as our very well-articulated and frequently explained policy that prohibits hazing.”

Foster wrote “none of the actions taken by team members placed any individual in physical danger.”

The hazing, he wrote, “follows by a matter of days an explicit discussion and warning about hazing initiated by Coach Smith that involved the entire men’s tennis team, the second such discussion he initiated this year.”

Later Thursday, Cook wrote that Smith had the conversations during the team’s fall and spring seasons.

Foster wrote, “This pattern of disregard for college policies and for our values is especially disappointing. As a result, we will redouble our efforts aimed at eliminating hazing at Bowdoin, and we will impose more severe sanctions in the future if this behavior continues, including the forfeiture of a team’s entire season, the loss of an organization’s recognition and/or funding, or similar penalties.”

Deputy Chief Marc Hagan of the Brunswick Police Department said he was not aware of any recent hazing incidents at the college.

In May 2011, Bowdoin saw its most public hazing incident in years when the college voluntarily vacated its first-ever NESCAC hockey title after the discovery of a team initiation event.

The college did not speak publicly about that hazing, but Foster told The Bowdoin Orient, the college’s newspaper, at the time it involved “an unambiguous case of hazing.”

A former team captain told the Orient the incident involved drinking. Mills wrote in the Bowdoin Daily Sun, a college newsletter, the hockey team “willfully disregarded” the college’s hazing policy.

Foster said at the time that team members “were dishonest in their characterization of events” and that he was disappointed at “collusion” by team members.

No one was expelled and no sanctions against any student were disclosed.

Early in the fall of 2011, the college’s men’s a capella group, the Meddiebempsters, was found to have also violated the college’s hazing policy at an initiation event.

According to the Orient, in 2008 Bowdoin revised its hazing policy after allegations of hazing on the women’s squash and sailing teams in 2006.

In the current college handbook, hazing is defined as “any activity that is part of an initiation, participation, or affiliation in a group that 1) physically or psychologically humiliates, degrades, abuses or endangers — regardless of a person’s willingness to participate; 2) results in the disruption of the educational process or the impairment of academic performance; or 3) violates college policy or state law.”

As of March 31, the Polar Bears men’s tennis team was ranked sixth in the latest ITA Division III poll, had improved to 9-2 — 2-0 in the New England Small College Athletic Conference — and had extended its winning streak to five games, the Bowdoin College website reported.

Because the college is in Division III, it does not award athletic scholarships.

“The team was talented and had hopes for a tremendous run,” Caton told The Times Record today. “The next four matches have been canceled, and the team will not play in postseason tournaments, both individually or as a team.”

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