Clementi's family to join campus event

The family of Tyler Clementi, the Rutgers University student who committed suicide after discovering that his roommate had allegedly used a webcam to spy on his intimate dorm-room encounter with another man, plans to return to the university's main campus next week for a symposium on social media.

The Tyler Clementi Foundation, which Clementi's parents set up in his memory after his death in September 2010, is cosponsoring the event with Rutgers. A lawyer for the family said Clementi's father, Joe, would make introductory remarks at the forum.

"It is a good thing, one of the kinds of things that the foundation will seek to encourage at Rutgers and with other institutions," Paul Mainardi said in an e-mail.

The event is a daylong, academically oriented outgrowth of the national conversation Clementi's death sparked about online bullying and bullying of young gays.

Clementi, 18, had been at Rutgers only a few weeks when roommate Dharun Ravi allegedly used a webcam to spy on him.

Days later, Clementi jumped off the George Washington Bridge.

Ravi, now 19, is charged with 15 offenses, including invasion of privacy and the hate crime of bias intimidation, and could be sentenced to 10 years in prison if found guilty on all counts.

He has rejected a plea bargain that would have come with a recommended prison sentence of three to five years. A trial is scheduled for February.

Joe and Jane Clementi, of Ridgewood, have not granted any interviews since their son's death, but they have been regulars in the courtroom at Ravi's appearances and have read statements after them and had their lawyer send other statements to reporters.

Most recently, they have said that although they want Ravi held accountable, they do not believe he must face a harsh penalty.

In December, they filed a notice of claim against Rutgers. The legal move preserves their right to sue the university, but so far they have not followed through with a suit.

Mainardi said there had not been any sort of out-of-court settlement to pave the way for Monday's symposium.

"The family has not been focusing on potential civil claims during this past year which, as you know, has been very difficult for them," Mainardi said. "Now their focus is turning to getting together to help accomplish good things in Tyler's name."

This is to be the family's first time on Rutgers' main campus in New Brunswick since their son's death.

They did attend an anti-bullying Wiffle ball game at the Camden campus earlier this year. While there, Mainardi said, they met briefly with university president Richard McCormick.