Former Binghamton University men’s lacrosse head coach Ed Stephenson, who resigned from his position Saturday because he disagreed with the athletic department’s treatment of three of his student-athletes, may have originally agreed with the suspensions.

According to Interim Athletic Director James Norris, a physical altercation involving the three student-athletes — who are now suspended — and a fourth individual took place around 1:15 a.m. on March 2. Following the incident, Norris met with Stephenson, and Norris said the two agreed that the three should be suspended until an athletic department review board hearing could be arranged.

Norris said the fourth individual is “not a student-athlete now, never was,” but said he couldn’t comment on whether the individual was a BU student.

Norris confirmed that the three student-athletes were suspended for “alleged violations of the athletic department code of conduct,” including breaches of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug policy, as well as verbal abuse and fighting.

According to Norris, one of the student-athletes was either arrested or issued an appearance ticket for possession of a fake ID. Norris also said the other two student-athletes had not been charged, but they were also suspended due to department violations.

“Student-athletes are subject to both a student-athlete code of conduct in addition to the University’s student code of conduct,” said BU spokeswoman Gail Glover,

She also said that the students face charges under the University’s code of conduct and that if they are found responsible, “sanctions could include various forms of probation up through and including suspension from the University.”

On the morning of the scheduled review board hearing, Norris said he received a phone call from campus police saying that the fourth individual had decided to press charges against all three of the student-athletes.

“If you’re arrested or that sort of thing, you can’t seek reinstatement [into the athletic department] until your legal situation has been resolved,” Norris said. “In addition, we also say that if campus judicial affairs is involved, then the athletic department reserves the right to postpone a review board hearing or a reinstatement hearing until the judicial affairs office has completed their piece of things. So right now there is an ongoing campus judicial proceeding, and that will need to be resolved before they’ll be able to request reinstatement.”

Stephenson resigned because he felt his players were being treated unfairly by the athletic department.

“[Stephenson] says in sentence two of his resignation that, ‘I have three student-athletes who are being treated unjustly by our athletic department at Binghamton University,'” Norris said.

Norris said he was aware of the Facebook page titled “Binghamton University Justice for Student Athletes,” which was created following Stephenson’s resignation, but he said he had not seen the page itself. Norris responded to claims made in the group’s description by its creator, Steve Donigan, that stated he refused to allow due process for student-athletes and that he fears the press.

“I’m confident that this matter has been handled in strict accordance with the athletic department policies,” Norris said. “Since I’ve been the athletic director, our department has worked very hard to clarify expectations for all concerned, and our policies and procedures and those sorts of things, we’ve clearly communicated those to our student-athletes, and I do think we set a high standard for our student-athletes and we will hold them accountable to those standards.”

Kevin McKeown, who was a men’s lacrosse assistant coach, has been named the interim head coach. Norris said that assistant coach Rob Williams and volunteer assistant coach Larry Klein have agreed to continue working with the program. All three are Bearcats who played under Stephenson, but none have more than five years’ experience coaching. Despite this, Norris still feels good about the staff.

“I’m confident in Kevin’s abilities to move the program forward, especially with the help of Rob and Larry,” Norris said. “I think that we’ve got a good staff there, I think they’ll do a great job, and I think they’re well regarded by the student-athletes, and I think they’ll do a good job for us.”

Norris met with the men’s lacrosse team on Saturday and had what he described as a “fairly lengthy discussion.” During the meeting he expressed confidence in the coaching staff and the student-athletes, while outlining what he wants to see from the student-athletes in the time ahead.

“My expectations for them moving forward [are] that they focus primarily on their academics and on being good lacrosse players and good representatives of the University and the department, and I think everybody was on board with doing that,” Norris said.

— Rob Bellon contributed to this report.