Shameful star chambers

Andrew was no ordinary student but a hard-working kid on a scholarship, doing honours in the final year of his pharmacy course. He was a resident fellow at the college, elected to the SRC, and a shining sports star. He was captain of various sporting teams, and had numerous leadership roles… all positions which he had to abandon when charged with a criminal offence.

When the shattered Andrew first contacted me, he was facing the frightening prospect of a criminal trial and the humiliation of finding excuses to withdraw from his numerous university positions, against the backdrop of malicious rumours about the allegations he was facing.

It was a tough year as we found local lawyers willing to represent him in the criminal case and bringing in others to jump through the ludicrous hoops being erected by the university administrators. Boy, were these bureaucrats relishing in their power to torment this young man.

Although Andrew could study online during the early months of 2020 during Covid lockdowns, he needed to get back on campus for a few days in October to attend an intensive practical course to complete his degree. Naturally the university’s petty tyrants said no.

Lawyers’ letters flew back and forth and then we had a breakthrough. A friend at the university dug out a regulation stating that the “university must take steps to ensure students are not academically disadvantaged while a matter is being determined.” Whoopee! That was inserted into the next lawyer’s letter and finally did the trick. Andrew was allowed to complete his course work – but the university still decided to withhold his degree, awaiting the decision from the magistrate’s court.

University withholds degree

Convicted felons are allowed to study at our universities. What gives any university the right to steal a student’s degree, an asset towards which he has devoted years of effort and spent tens of thousands of dollars? Our laws say nothing about withholding degrees as punishment for sex crimes. The universities have made this stuff up - with no proper authority.

So here we have the university telling this hard-working student that they were withholding his degree, refusing to allow him to take his rightful place as a qualified pharmacist, they were derailing his pharmacy internship, costing him between $30-60,000 in earnings that year. Leaving him in limbo for half a year until a local magistrate could make a decision, and then another eight months while their star chamber swung into action.

In June 2021, the case was heard and the magistrate very quickly dismissed the single charge of “sexual touching” that Andrew was facing, saying Andrew’s version of events “may well be true.” Fran repeated in court that she did not feel Andrew had done anything wrong at the time, and confirmed that she had objected to her friends making Andrew go, asking “why does he have to leave?”  

So that was it. Smooth sailing after that, you might imagine. Not with this university in charge. We had an amusing moment late last year when Andrew received an email congratulating him on his degree and inviting him to apply to have his degree sent to him.  He quickly filled in the right form and hoped for the best.  Sadly, no degree arrived through the post. The invitation turned out to be a mistake. The bumbling administration then announced there was still a misconduct charge to be determined and the university planned its own investigation.

One final chance to do him over

Here we have our justice system deciding a young man was innocent but that’s not good enough for this great university. They chose to have another go, conducting their own investigation and decision-making process. The reason?  This university, as is true of all similar institutions, have decided they are entitled to their own star chamber determining these matters using a lower standard of proof. So, if he gets off in the criminal system there remains another, easier way to nail him.