This just sounds like typical college administration arrogance and stupidity.
Posted on 06/02/2011 7:34:45 AM PDT by EBH
Facebook and college go hand and hand these days — students read up on each other, share funny videos, send messages, and publicize those embarrassing photos from the night before. At Saint Augustine’s College, however, posting the wrong thing on Facebook will land you in hot water.
The Raleigh, N.C., college prohibited senior Roman Caple from participating in his class’ graduation because of a “negative social media exchange” he had on Facebook regarding the school’s response to the April 16th tornado damage.
What Caple is being punished for is encouraging his peers on SAC’s Facebook page to go to the school’s public meeting to argue for what he thought was the best way to respond to the tornado damage.
“Here it go!!!!!” he wrote. “Students come correct, be prepared, and have supporting documents to back up your arguments bcuz SAC will come hard!!!! That is all.”
Several days later, Caple met with SAC Vice President for Student Development and Services Eric W. Jackson, who that same day informed Caple that he would not be allowed to walk with his class.
In a letter to Caple, Jackson explained that the reason for his prohibition was the Facebook comments, adding that “[a]ll students enrolled at Saint Augustine’s College are responsible for protecting the reputation of the college and supporting its mission.”
While graduation has already happened, without Caple participating, the student is still fighting the decision. His attorney, Brandon S. Atwater, has sought help from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE).
“While it promises free speech, Saint Augustine’s College has apparently rolled out a brand new, unwritten ‘don’t challenge our decisions on Facebook’ rule that warrants keeping a student out of graduation ceremonies,” FIRE senior vice president Robert Shibley said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
what they do?
they could have the right to refuse graduation as a private school if he were in violation of his contract with them.
my question did they with hold the diploma or did they simply deny his participation in the graduation ceremony?
“Here it go!!!!!” he wrote. “Students come correct, be prepared, and have supporting documents to back up your arguments bcuz SAC will come hard!!!! That is all.”Contractual obligations are two-sided. His post seems to indicate that he hasn't lived up to his side of the acedemic achievement obligation.
I'll just bet there's a family member that played pro football a few years back...you know, the guy with the "He Hate Me" on the back of his jersey!
HE POSTED ON THE COLLEGE SITE!! As we know, almost every site has rules.
It seems he received his degree but didn’t get to use his cap & gown.
I had my school mail mine to me. He isn’t out anything.
I guess he got the zot.
Perhaps you gleaned this information from another source, but this particular story did not include any of that info. Here is part of the story at the source that was omitted from the excerpting process for FR posting purposes:
In a statement issued in response to concern about Caple’s punishment, the school explained that the decision was due to the fact that they saw Caple’s words as an attempt to stir up trouble.I'm sure there is more to the story on both sides. Perhaps the school overreacted in excluding this future community organizer from its graduation ceremony; and perhaps this fine young man is just a spoiled little punk that likes to stir up controversy and prevent solutions when others are trying to work through issues and resolve problems. Perhaps the real truth is somewhere in the middle.“At a time when the College staff was working diligently to ensure the well being of all students, Mr. Caple, a senior, chose to attempt to create chaos,” the school wrote in a statement. “It is important to note that Mr. Caple is a student who resides off campus and therefore, was not present on campus throughout the tornado or its aftermath.”
The college added that they had had past troubles with Caple, but were not prepared to share them at this time.
“Throughout his matriculation, there were more incidents involving Mr. Caple that factored into the College’s decision, however, because of FERPA [Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act] constraints, that information cannot be disclosed,” the school added. “The posts to Facebook during this time left the administration with no other choice other than to exclude him from the actual commencement exercise.”
He paid for an education.
He received the education.
Contractual obligation is fulfilled..............
“In a letter to Caple, Jackson explained that the reason for his prohibition was the Facebook comments, adding that “[a]ll students enrolled at Saint Augustine’s College are responsible for protecting the reputation of the college and supporting its mission”
That is the official reason, a very broad, non-specific reason if there ever was one.
I just went to the SAC FB page. Nothing there indicates that postings are limited by content or purpose.
“Contractual obligations are two-sided. His post seems to indicate that he hasn’t lived up to his side of the acedemic achievement obligation.”
He is under no contractual obligation to use proper grammer outside of class. This was a petty and vindictive bit of tyranny without a shread of merit to it.
I brought a lot of personal experience into what I read, not necessarily what has happened to me, but what I’ve seen throughout life and just think is good advice. I did find his own specific writing to be a bit cryptic (/understatement) and therefore subject to intrepretation. As I read through the other responses, I realized that once again, I arrived at a different conclusion.
It is never bad advice to keep your own personal copies of documents, especially which will validate milestones. I and my classmates at college would frequently make photocopies of work turned in, and I advised my kids to do the same. Profs are human and do mislay and lose assignments, especially when they have a large workload. The Army did lose, a few years ago, my son’s 201 file.
So, while not appropo in this case (apparently), it is good advice to keep your own documentation of everything!
This is interesting. The school goes out of its way to denigrate Caple, and then hides behind confidentiality rules to explain why they can’t say more. Sound like typical administrative CYO to me. And what’s the deal with him not living on campus? Most students don’t - does that somehow make them the lesser of equals?
He should have said that in English like you did instead of the punk jibberish that he used.
“He paid for an education.
He received the education.
Contractual obligation is fulfilled..............”
Graduation is part of the contract. As long as he meets the academic requirements they must allow him to graduate with his class. Or, provide specific reasons why not and a chance to answer those charges. Challenging administrative policy in a public forum and encouraging others to do so is not a valid reason.
The meeting that he appeared to be encouraging students to disrupt was for the purpose of dealing with the school's response to tornado damage (presumably on campus from the context). So the "deal" with him not living on campus (again presumably from context) is that he is not really a party to the issues being discussed but has chosen to interject himself into the discussions and in a way to promote confrontation rather than cooperation.
To illustrate in local community terms (the relevance of his residency), if your local government were meeting with the residents of your street to deal with damage from a storm, and the purpose of the meeting was to come up with a plan for a timely completion of repairs and improvements, would you want a community organizer from a neighboring town posting notices accusing your city council of planning to deny claims and obstruct progress and urging your neighbors to get loud and confrontational with lots of documentation and be prepared for a fight? Or would you prefer that he go organize his own community and let you and your neighbors work constructively with the city council reps to come up with a solution? The community organizer from across town has the freedom of speech to go stir up trouble anywhere he likes. You and your neighbors would have no recourse in preventing him from doing so (and I would not suggest that you or your government should be able to prevent him from speaking his mind) as long as he is not trespassing on private property.
Sports events, concerts, ceremonies and other such type events are considered ‘extra-curricular’ activities, meaning ‘outside the curriculum’. He paid for the curriculum. He still received his diploma.
If I were him, I’d chalk it up to bad decisions and move on with my life, diploma in hand and take on the world...........
Currently I’m living and doing research 2,000 miles away from my institution - at one time I was living in a tent in the Kalahari over 9,000 miles away - but neither then nor now do I feel less a part of the university community than if I was hanging on the quad; my opinion regarding decision-making on campus is just as valid as anyone’s. And what identifies this guy as a “trouble-maker”, the fact that he disagrees with the school administration? I’d be curious why the school is so unwilling to engage in any type of dialog and wants to silence dissent.
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