Poetic protest sparks protest for the right to protest

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The private entity makes all students sign a contract that spells out the mechanism for disciplinary measures. All students know who decides on punishments.

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Which says nothing about how it makes sense for the independent court to suspend him alone for seven terms when the uni wanted a single term. holding a man's degree hostage for seven terms, nice. how does that affect his career? his earnings? totally disproportionate and unnecessary punishment

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Originally Posted by Aimless

Which says nothing about how it makes sense for the independent court to suspend him alone for seven terms when the uni wanted a single term. holding a man's degree hostage for seven terms, nice. how does that affect his career? his earnings? totally disproportionate and unnecessary punishment

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What do you mean by an "independent court"? It's a part of Cambridge: http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/univ/so/2...section20.html

Too bad for him. If he wants to be a hero, he should pay the price.

Edit: the guy was studying for a Ph.D. in English. This means two things. One, he already has a BA, which makes him in theory employable. And two, he was trying to get a degree with which he'd be all but guaranteed to end up unemployed. :noob:

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Originally Posted by Loki

How's that in any way relevant? The university is obliged to provide the speaker a satisfactory environment. If it fails, it loses its right to the speaking fee (though I doubt a current politician would get anything other than traveling expenses).

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Wait, what? The amount of punishment is irrelevant?

I guess we have to rewrite the code of law, then. How very Lewkowskian of you: I guess "Fry'em" is your new standard response for any and all crimes then, if you support such over-the-top punishments?

Loki, I think we may be all agreeing that the University can (and should) punish a unruly student. What many here are suggesting is that the punishment seems to be over the top.

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Originally Posted by Loki

Pray tell what would happen to an employee of a private firm if he was to act obnoxiously in front of a key client.

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The whole staff got reminded that the PA system isn't a toy, actually. Granted, we've got a serious case of cranial-colonic impaction going on, but you asked, so there you have it. The PA system is not a toy. Got any other queries of private enterprise?

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Originally Posted by Veldan Rath

Loki, I think we may be all agreeing that the University can (and should) punish a unruly student. What many here are suggesting is that the punishment seems to be over the top.

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Plus, this is allegedly an institution of higher learning that claims to embody the ideal of free speech... that expelled someone for 7 terms for reading a poem. Not that the rest of us didn't know that Cambridge is for ass-hatted deadheads who couldn't make it into Oxford, and have a career full of pushing papers for the government ahead of them or anything, but still, you're billing yourself as an institution of higher learning, so you're supposed to hide the fact that free thought and dissent aren't welcome.

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Originally Posted by Veldan Rath

Loki, I think we may be all agreeing that the University can (and should) punish a unruly student. What many here are suggesting is that the punishment seems to be over the top.

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I addressed that in my first post here. I said it was probably too harsh, but fully within the rights of the university. Quite frankly, I'd be willing to defend the student if he was an undergrad; a doctoral student knows better (though perhaps not if they're studying English...).

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Originally Posted by CitizenCain

Plus, this is allegedly an institution of higher learning that claims to embody the ideal of free speech... that expelled someone for 7 terms for reading a poem. Not that the rest of us didn't know that Cambridge is for ass-hatted deadheads who couldn't make it into Oxford, and have a career full of pushing papers for the government ahead of them or anything, but still, you're billing yourself as an institution of higher learning, so you're supposed to hide the fact that free thought and dissent aren't welcome.

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For denying someone the right to speak...

Don't overplay the denying part. Competing voices happens under free speech. Either way, he could be escorted out etc.

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Originally Posted by RandBlade

Don't overplay the denying part. Competing voices happens under free speech. Either way, he could be escorted out etc.

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It's not competing voices. The guy was free to make his views known elsewhere. I'm sure Cambridge would be more than happy to schedule a time for him to speak.

Indeed he did wrong, but don't exaggerate it.

Besides its stupid. Who's ever heard of a 2.5 year suspension before? Either expel altogether or suspend for a reasonable term (as requested). But as I said above, I don't trust the source.

Maybe it's because it's usually undergrads, not Ph.D. students who are behaving like spoiled little brats.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-bask...driguez-chants

Is anyone going to defend these people's right to free speech? FYI, their financial loss (due to loss of scholarships) is probably going to be higher than that of an English Ph.D.

I'm guessing the racism helped.

Racism isn't illegal in the US.

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Originally Posted by Loki

Racism isn't illegal in the US.

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Is poetry?

My point is that the racist nature of the heckling of a student (which compares unfavourably to legitimate protests against a politician) probably helped when deciding to revoke the scholarships, which is also a less dramatic punishment than holding someone's degree hostage for 2.5 years after he's already invested in it. I also note that these ones weren't suspended or rusticated or whatever you want to call it, so the comparison is strange to say the least. Do you expect anyone to think losing scholarships and going to a lecture is as disproportionate a punishment as rusticating a PhD-student for 2.5 years? Okay, if anyone here thinks that then that person will hopefully drop by to say that the case of the racist pep-squad was indeed outrageous. Devil's in the details Loki

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Originally Posted by Aimless

Is poetry?

My point is that the racist nature of the heckling of a student (which compares unfavourably to legitimate protests against a politician) probably helped when deciding to revoke the scholarships, which is also a less dramatic punishment than holding someone's degree hostage for 2.5 years after he's already invested in it. I also note that these ones weren't suspended or rusticated or whatever you want to call it, so the comparison is strange to say the least. Do you expect anyone to think losing scholarships and going to a lecture is as disproportionate a punishment as rusticating a PhD-student for 2.5 years? Okay, if anyone here thinks that then that person will hopefully drop by to say that the case of the racist pep-squad was indeed outrageous. Devil's in the details Loki

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The point is that universities/colleges are free to punish as they see fit. No they weren't suspended, but the loss of a scholarship is a massive blow.

Legitimate protests against politicians normally occur outside​ the auditorium, not inside it.

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Originally Posted by Aimless

Is poetry?

My point is that the racist nature of the heckling of a student (which compares unfavourably to legitimate protests against a politician) probably helped when deciding to revoke the scholarships, which is also a less dramatic punishment than holding someone's degree hostage for 2.5 years after he's already invested in it. I also note that these ones weren't suspended or rusticated or whatever you want to call it, so the comparison is strange to say the least. Do you expect anyone to think losing scholarships and going to a lecture is as disproportionate a punishment as rusticating a PhD-student for 2.5 years? Okay, if anyone here thinks that then that person will hopefully drop by to say that the case of the racist pep-squad was indeed outrageous. Devil's in the details Loki

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Heckling other teams is part of the sport. The only difference is the language used. Not allowing politicians to talk in a private setting is not part of the norm.

Losing a scholarship means losing perhaps $20k-30k a year for 4 years. If they transfer, there's no guarantee that they'd get a similar scholarship. The Ph.D. student can just go elsewhere, and his funding will travel with him (assuming he has any).

Are you kidding? I doubt it's the first or last time he's been heckled in a private setting.