At the start of the fall semester, the club was informed by the Union that they would be unable to rehire D’Alessio due to, according to club officers, his lack of qualification as an instructor and a lapse in insurance. According to the Judo Club, allegations had been made that D’Alessio had intentionally deceived RPI and the Union about insurance that the club did or did not have and that the club held a tournament lacking this insurance. The club said that the Union felt that the holding of the tournament without that insurance may have increased the liabilities of the Union.

The issue with the insurance came about early last semester when U.S. Judo Inc. (USJI), with whom the RPI Judo Club had been registering as a club in the past, sent a statement for mandatory regulations that went into effect January 1. According to club president Michael Dexter, since USJI had become more difficult to deal with, the Judo Club decided to register with the U.S. Judo Association (USJA). After meeting with Steve Allard, the club’s Student Activities Resource Person, the club sent out documents on February 13 and “didn’t bother to meet with the USJI’s new requirements,” said Dexter.

Rick Hartt, director of the Union, said that “instructors must be certified and have had national organizational certification to ensure students receive correct instruction.” Over the summer, the Union received a letter from the USJI saying that the club’s instructor was uncertified. Allard met with club representatives to inform them that their instructor would not be rehired.

According to the Union officials, “the focus of the discussion in February [concerning the change from the USJI to the USJA] was to obtain insurance for the instructor so he could be paid, not the larger question of changing organizational affiliations.” Hartt further stated “there had been no conscious decision, no conscious presentation . . . that said [the club] wanted to be affiliated with one association and not the other.”

Club treasurer Jeffery Bradway said that the club “proved to the Union that we had insurance . . . in a meeting with Rick Hartt and Steve Allard.” The meeting occurred on October 8, after five weeks of waiting for someone to look at the evidence the club had gathered to prove the Union’s insurance allegations false.

On the issue of rehiring D’Alessio, club members feel as though “the Union is not listening” to them, Bradway said. Dexter added that “at no point did they come to talk to us about the problem” and “they made the decision not to rehire our instructor.” Dexter also said that while the club is a student run organization, the students are “being constantly excluded from the decision making process.” According to D’Alessio, “no information [had been] passed back and forth” between the students and the Union officials and it was “important to keep the students in the loop.”

Bradway stated that the Union had tried to hire Terry Sharp of Judo of Japan in Troy to instruct the RPI Judo Club, but at no point was there consultation with Judo Club members on the issue. Dexter went on to explain that “the club has chosen Mike to be our instructor, but we are [not being allowed to have] him [as] our instructor, and at this point there is no stated reason.” According to Hartt, “everything is being evaluated right now” concerning the status of D’Alessio.

After club members had a meeting with Peter Baldwin, president of the Union, he said that he had “told them they would be involved in the process for finding an instructor, as it was their instructor.” Hartt added that “there was every effort made to involve them” and that the “goal was that the students would be involved in the hiring or contracting process,” but “in the hiring/contracting process, the university is ultimately going to decide.”

In a letter received on October 31 by club officers from Mark Smith, dean of students, the news of D’Alessio’s status became clear. Smith states that “I have ... come to the conclusion that Mr. D’Alessio will not be reinstated as instructor for the RPI Judo Club.” Smith goes on to write that “the issue is not insurance or affiliation . . . but how it has been addressed by the Judo Club leadership and the nature of it’s communication to Rensselaer and Union administration.” The letter also said, “since Mr. D’Alessio became [the] instructor and coach, I have observed a growing animosity between student club members and the Rensselaer Union.”