CovOps
Location : Ether-Sphere Job/hobbies : Irrationality Exterminator Humor : Über Serious
| Subject: Oxford University fines graduating students more than £10,000 for their post-exam celebrations Fri Apr 18, 2008 5:13 am | |
| Proctors at Oxford University have fined graduating students more than £10,000 for their post-exam celebrations — with the aid of the social networking site Facebook.
It is now nine months since The Times revealed that the guardians of Oxford discipline were sifting through students’ Facebook pages, gathering evidence of “disorderly behaviour”.
The tactic provoked outrage from the university’s student union, who accused the proctors of a “disgraceful” intrusion into student privacy and grabbed headlines across the world.
But the sum of fines collected for “trashings” — the practice of finishing students spraying each other with champagne, foam, eggs, flour and any number of other substances — was five times higher this year than the one before, thanks to evidence gathered online. The fines ranged from £40 up to £500.
James Forder, an economics tutor and Senior Proctor said: “There is one clear sign that we took the right line over misbehaviour after examinations. Everyone was furious with us.”
The university has been attempting to rein in students’ celebrations for decades. In 2004 it resorted to spot fines of up to £70 for “fluid spraying or egg hurling” after residents complained that the clean up bill ran to thousands of pounds. Only 14 students were caught, however.
Martin McCluskey, president of the Oxford University Student Union, admits that the practice of trashing may have got rather out of hand in recent years, with reports of students hurling squid and catfood. But he added: “I am sure there is no other university in the country that would be imposing fines at this level.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article3768282.ece
Let them eat cat-food... |
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