Student majorette group suspended via vague directive citing no explicit violations, admin refuses to give further comment – The Cauldron
The Vikingettes, Cleveland State University’s (CSU) majorette dance team, has been suspended for the remainder of the 2024-25 academic year, according to a vaguely worded directive sent via email to the student organization on Jan. 12, 2025.
Sent by Jarrett Pratt, senior director of the Sullivan-Deckard Program and student engagement, the directive reads:
“I am writing to inform you that, effectively immediately, the Vikingettes organization, as recognized by Cleveland State University, shall no longer perform or present in any capacity at CSU sporting events. This directive is in alignment with university policies and is meant to ensure compliance with organizational standards…should the group perform in any manner while in attire resembling that of a student organization, it would constitute a violation of this directive and may result in the loss of the organization’s charter.”
Screenshot of the directive, provided to The Cauldron by The Vikingettes president Leah Woodson.
While the directive refers to “university policies,” The Vikingettes shared with The Cauldron that they have yet to be informed by CSU administration in Student Belonging and Success what exact policies the organization violated.
President of The Vikingettes and CSU student, Leah Woodson, said that she visited Pratt on Jan. 13, one day after receiving the directive. He told her that he did not feel The Vikingettes were “developed” as an organization.
“[Pratt] feels as if we are not developed and I took that as an insult because we have shown that we are willing to change and improve in certain aspects,” shared Leah in an interview with The Cauldron in February 2025.
Joined by Vice President Jade Woodson for this interview, Leah also described the organization’s confusion regarding the directive’s language, which explicitly refers to athletics events, though makes no mention of non-athletics events. The Vikingettes were scheduled to perform and present themselves at an event hosted by the CSU Black Student Union. However ,on Jan. 13, Pratt clarified that the directive referred to all CSU events, athletics and otherwise.
Below are quotes between Leah and Pratt from a recording of the Jan. 13 meeting, provided to The Cauldron by The Vikingettes.
“If I didn’t make it clear, if it just seemed like I was talking about athletics, my intention was that you would understand that that meant [you’re] not performing publicly,” said Pratt.
“I can’t make assumptions about what you said, you said CSU athletics games or events,” responded Leah.
“Allow me to clarify: I mean performing for the rest of the year,” said Pratt. “That is a decision that has already been made. So I think the reality that you have to function in now is ‘what can we do for next year?’ Because as of this year, those decisions have been made. And the opportunity to have that development has already passed.”
Meetings between Student Belonging and Success and The Vikingettes
Leah and vice president of The Vikingettes, Jade Woodson, described two separate meetings that the student organization had with administrative figures in Student Belonging and Success in November 2024 – before the suspension of the organization.
In the first November 2024 meeting, the organization was advised to change their attire and dance moves because they were too “provocative.”
“We were being told by Dr. [Tachelle] Banks [of Student Belonging and Success] more specifically that our moves are provocative and our attire is provocative as well,” said Jade. “We were listening to what she said and we were willing to make adjustments and have our dance moves be checked over by our advisor more thoroughly.”
While The Vikingettes were open to making adjustments, they also attempted to advocate for their current attire and dance by making a slideshow presentation drawing comparisons to other sports teams at CSU during the second meeting. Leah and Jade shared that they were quickly dismissed.
The girls emphasized to The Cauldron the influence of majorette culture on their attire and questioned how much administration within Student Belonging and Success understood majorette culture:
“Maybe they just don’t have a good understanding of what majorette culture is,” said Leah. “We had a slide [in the presentation] showing that our current uniforms match [the] uniforms of other sports, and if this could be acceptable for track culture or swim culture, then our uniforms should be acceptable for majorette culture, because that’s what you typically see. And they didn’t want to hear it.”
Jade added that the second meeting ended and The Vikingettes “left with no guidance, no support, no policies showing us what our next steps should be in regards to what uniforms we should pick.”
The Golden Girls, an original majorette team from Alcorn State University, pictured left. Photo Credit: The Golden Girls, featured in Dance Magazine. The Sophisticated Girls, Tennessee State University’s majorette team, pictured right. Photo Credit: The Sophisticated Girls.
The Vikingettes added that in the second meeting, they were told by Student Belonging and Success “that any direct contact that needs to be made to athletics needs to go through either our advisor…or Jarrett Pratt.” They specified that the option was and/or.
An alleged act of intimidation in December 2024
The Vikingettes shared with The Cauldron that the student organization allegedly dealt with “an act of intimidation” during an athletics event on Dec. 19, 2025.
According to an email sent by The Vikingettes to Assistant Athletics Director, Carrie Neville, the incident involved a ticket holder “associated with one of the spirit squad members.” The individual allegedly gave The Vikingettes a scornful look as they entered the game space and said, “oh, ew, them,” in their direction.
The Vikingettes shared that they spoke with CSU Police during the game, who informed them to contact the athletics directors via email regarding the incident, since they weren’t present at the game. According to a screenshot of the email provided by The Vikingettes, the girls made clear that they were directed by CSUPD to contact athletics first regarding this situation. This went against previous direction by Student Belonging and Success advised to always go through their advisor or Jarrett Pratt first.
that they had been informed by Student Belonging and Success to reach out to their advisor or Jarrett Pratt first
though emphasized the direction they were given by CSUPD.
The girls expressed in the email that the incident “instilled [a] feeling of unwelcomeness and fear” and that, broadly speaking, “we continuously endure nasty, demeaning comments from your attendees.”
A response from Neville, also provided by The Vikingettes, shows solidarity for the student group:
“I am sorry that you experienced a feeling of unwelcomeness at the game last evening, that is certainly not the experience we want any fan to have while at Cleveland State. All fans are encouraged to immediately approach Cleveland State Athletics Staff, Wolstein game day staff or CSU police officers should they feel uncomfortable or observe other fans behaving in inappropriate ways.”
Per the recording of the Jan. 13 meeting between Pratt and The Vikingettes, after the directive was sent out, Pratt refers to The Vikingettes’ decision to contact athletics directly as one of the factors considered in the organization’s ultimate suspension.
A separate incident between CSU athletics and The Vikingettes
Alluding to an alleged track record of lack of transparency within CSU administration since the organization’s founding in October 2023, The Vikingettes also described an experience involving the organization’s performance at a Nov. 5, 2024 athletics game.
According to The Vikingettes, CSU athletics scheduled the organization to perform and present themselves at a series of games in the student section. However, CSU athletics allegedly introduced new student section seating prior to the Nov. 5, 2024 game without the organization’s knowledge.
“We requested that we have seating for these games,” shared Leah with The Cauldron. “[CSU athletics] introduced new student section seating…we went to the game and we were like ‘hey, if new student seating was being created, then how come we weren’t informed?’…they weren’t being transparent.”
Jade added, “We felt like we had to speak up because of the lack of transparency…which we felt was an attempt to limit our peers’ engagement with us because they moved the new seating [from] the courtside…[to] the stands, [students and fans were] not going to be able to see us.”
The Vikingettes expressed their frustration regarding the incident in a Nov. 8 email to CSU athletics, which eventually led to the first of the two aforementioned meetings in November 2024.
Refusal to comment from Student Belonging and Success
The Cauldron reached out to Tachelle Banks, Ph.D., vice president of Student Belonging and Success, Nicholas Petty, Ph.D., assistant vice president of Student Belonging and Success, and Pratt requesting comment regarding what The Vikingettes shared with The Cauldron.
On behalf of the division, Pratt declined to comment. The Cauldron followed up with a second request for comment, with no response.