more on California univ. [ California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly)] student punished for... posting event flyer

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: "J. Paul Reed" <preed () sigkill com>
Date: Fri, 04 Jul 2003 01:19:18 -0700
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Cc: fire () thefire org, greg () thefire org
Subject: Re: [IP] California univ. [ California Polytechnic State University
(Cal Poly)] student punished for... posting event flyer

On 04 Jul 2003 at 03:45:59, Dave Farber moved bits on my disk to say:

> On March 12, Vice Provost W. David Conn found Hinkle guilty.  Conn
> ordered Hinkle to write letters of apology to the offended students.  The
> sentencing letter from Conn stated that the text of the apology would be
> subject to the approval of the Office of Judicial Affairs.   The letter
> also warned that "there is no parameter or guarantee regarding the
> confidentiality of the letter [of apology]" and that "this decision is
> final."  Conn informed Hinkle that if he did not accept this punishment,
> he would face much stiffer penalties, up to expulsion.

As a recently graduated Cal Poly student (as in two weeks ago), this is a
merely a variation on a very familiar theme at Cal Poly.

I went through Poly's disciplinary process back in early 2000 because I
portscanned an off-campus computer from my personal computer in the dorms
in the pursuit of my gainful employment at the time.  The details of the
actual "crime" aren't significantly interesting (and you can read about
them at the website below), but the way the university handled the
situation *is* interesting and seemingly hasn't changed since then.

It all began with dealing with Judicial Affairs. My explanations for my
conduct fell on deaf ears, my suggestions for compromise ignored. When
repeated and egregious violations of established disciplinary procedure
occurred, both my and my parents' attempts to report the conduct to the
Vice-President of Student Affairs were ignored.

I was not allowed an attorney at either the meetings with Judicial Affairs
or my hearing (although, this is a requirement of the CSU Chancellor's
Executive Order 628, not a Cal Poly rule).

On numerous occasions, the Judicial Affairs coordinator blatantly broke the
rules set out in E.O. 628. Everything from trying to hold my hearing before
she was allowed to, to not serving me with the appropriate paperwork early
enough before that hearing, to not providing me with all the evidence
against me, and generally being uncooperative at every opportunity.

She would state 'rules' as if they were codified policy, and would not be
able to produce supporting documentation when I asked for it. When I would
ask her again, taped and on the record, regarding these issues, she would
completely change what she said. Eventually, she asserted I could not tape
our conversations anymore (likely because I would tape them and post them
online as evidence of her contradictory behavior and the university's
general bad faith in the matter).

The judicial hearing is a joke, a kangaroo court of sorts: if you get to
the hearing stage, you *will* be found guilty. The university engineers it
this way (in my case, the hearing officer served on the committee which
wrote the then-unapproved policy I was being "charged" with.)

After I began to publish the details of the way I was treated, Cal Poly
students began to come out of the woodwork with eerily similar stories of
being berated and blackmailed into submission and accepting punishment by
the Office of Judicial Affairs.

The best part is in the finding of fact, the hearing officer claimed I
should be given a stricter punishment because I had a website recording all
of these injustices. The hearing officer described my behavior as "way over
the line of appropriate[ness]," and noted that I did not agree to the
"standard campus policy" of keeping the proceedings confidential.

You can read the details of the three-year-old incident, including
documents from my case, at http://freepaul.sigkill.com/

It's depressing to see that my alma mater hasn't learned anything and
continues to railroad students in the interest of protecting the
university's image.

Discipline in a college setting should be about students learning about the
consequences of their behavior, not hanging them out to dry, as it is at
Cal Poly. 

Later,
Paul
------------------------------------------------------------------------
J. Paul Reed -- 0xDF8708F8 || preed () sigkill com || web.sigkill.com/preed
To hold on to sanity too tight is insane.   -- Nick Falzone, Pushing Tin

I use PGP; you should use PGP too... if only to piss off John Ashcroft


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