Stop policing off-campus behaviour

‘There will be blood on all of our hands — that sounds dramatic, but there will be — because people are being stupid, or encouraged by others to be stupid.”

These were the words of London, Ont., Mayor Ed Holder at a recent city council meeting manifesting his desire to put an end to “Fake Homecoming” or “FOCO” — an unsanctioned annual street party tied to Western University. FOCO attracted over 20,000 revellers last September, up from 11,000 the previous September. The 2018 event cost the City over $200,000 in emergency services, more than 50 people were taken to hospital, and one person suffered serious injuries from jumping off a roof.

Western calls FOCO an “illegal gathering” that “endangers the entire community by straining the resources of our police, fire department, emergency medical services ( EMS) and hospitals.” Mayor Holder wants Western to impose “extremely clear, extremely strong academic sanctions” on students who partake in dangerous or illegal behaviour at FOCO, even up to suspension or expulsion, by expanding the reach of its student code of conduct.

FOCO draws students from across the province; high school students have been reported to be in attendance as well. There is no way the Western University student code of conduct could apply to these alien partiers. However, for the students who do attend Western — is it right to be subject to a code of conduct, when they are not attending the party in any official cap- acity with the university?

Western students wouldn’t be the first to be expected to uphold their university’s code of conduct off- campus. Increasingly, Canadian universities are attempting to vastly expand the scope of their codes of conduct to include private, off-campus behaviour.

In 2008, twin brothers Keith and Steven Pridgen were reprimanded under the University of Calgary’s student code for creating a Facebook group about their legal studies professor, a group entitled “I no longer fear Hell, I took a course with Aruna Mitra.” The university found the Pridgen brothers to be guilty of “non- academic misconduct,” placed them on probation for six months and accused them of defaming Mitra. Steven Pridgen had called Mitra “lazy,” and Keith Pridgen wrote a celebratory post after finding out Mitra wouldn’t be teaching again at the university. In the end, an Alberta judge ruled that the university had violated the Pridgens’ Charter right to free expression, notably declaring that “the University is not a Charter- free zone.”

And more recent in our collective memory is the case of Masuma Khan, a student executive at Dalhousie University who in late 2017 was accused of discrimination for posting anti- white remarks on her personal Facebook page. The posts prompted the university to open a disciplinary investigation, though Dalhousie ultimately bowed to public pressure and reversed this decision.

Currently, Western’s student code of conduct applies to conduct on the university premises and “at universitysponsored events either onor off-campus.” It also states that in “certain instances, the code may apply more broadly to any conduct that might reasonably be seen to have an adverse effect on, interfere with, or threaten the proper functioning of the university, its mission, or the rights of its members.”

Not all universities have succumbed to the tempta- tion to rule over students’ offcampus behaviour. In 2011, a University of British Columbia (UBC) student was caught on video at the infamous Vancouver Stanley Cup riot stealing two pairs of pants from a formal-wear store. After being named and shamed on social media, many called on UBC to expel her. The university however, declined to expel her or to impose any disciplinary action, stating it was leaving the consequences of her looting to the police and the courts.

We need less hyperbole and more UBC- like prudence in such cases. The competency of universities is academic, not disciplinary, and their disciplinary record is often poor. Universities should let the police and courts handle peace and orderly conduct in public places.

UNIVERSITIES ARE ATTEMPTING TO VASTLY EXPAND THE SCOPE OF THEIR CODES OF CONDUCT.