Expulsion appeal in the spotlight
The Ryerson student facing expulsion for joining an Internet study group faced an appeal Tuesday, but the outcome won't be known for five days.
Still, Chris Avenir vows to fight until he clears his name and might take legal action if he loses.
"I don't have any regrets about what happened," said Avenir, a chemical engineering student after his appeal.
Avenir got in trouble for joining the Facebook group "The Dungeon/Mastering Chemistry Solutions" last semester.
When he became the group's administrator, the school targeted him and charged him with academic misconduct.
Avenir's case has since attracted international media attention and 20 supporters showed up to Avenir's appeal.
"Ryerson's image is pretty much going down the drain," said first-year hospitality and tourism management student Shannan Scott, Avenir's girlfriend.
"I think it's great that we're getting his case out there."
Not all students, however, are supporting Avenir, and the campus is divided over the idea of policing students online.
The president of the engineers' student group maintains Avenir committed academic misconduct for administrating a Facebook group in which students exchanged notes and answers.
"It seems unfair to everyone who would have worked on that assignment on their own," said Griffith d'Souza, president of the Ryerson Engineering Students' Society.
But he said Avenir has been singled out for the indiscretions of each member of the "Dungeon/Mastering Chemistry Solutions" group.
Students and staff are also mobilizing against a motion before Ryerson's Senate that would allow the school to punish students for things that happen off campus and on the Internet. The proposed policy would also create a Student Conduct Officer, who would enforce the Non-Academic Student Code of Conduct (Policy 61).
Ryerson's two student unions are circulating an online petition against Policy 61, describing the proposed amendments as "the biggest affront in years to students' freedom of speech."
Computer Science professor David Mason, a member of the committee updating the current policy, said the school needs more time to gather input on a renewed draft of Policy 61.
He said because material is usually submitted two weeks prior to each meeting, it'd be difficult to incorporate student suggestions into the draft.
The motion lost by a narrow margin of 25 to 27, which Loreto calls a direct attack on students.
But VP Students Zouheir Fawaz, who chairs the group drafting Policy 61, said as long as the draft is the subject of student concern, the committee will not be forced to present the draft.
"Trust me, I'll be the last person to watch a committee under my chairmanship proposing something that infringes on student rights," he said. "The university isn't sending spies onto the World Wide Web to monitor you."
However, Loreto argues that the role of the conduct officer will be to hunt down students.
"We're paying another salary to someone whose sole purpose is to police students," she said.
Comments
Michael Kurylowicz, 8 months ago said:
I attended Ryerson\'s Aerospace Engineering program between 1995-1999. As a result of my experience, nothing about this senseless lack of academic judgment surprises me. I have never seen a collection of professionals with poorer judgment than many of the professors I had to submit to through those years.
Don\'t get me wrong, there were a few very excellent professors - unfortunately they were in the vast minority.
I am now a highly valued and well paid engineering professional - but I cannot give Ryerson an ounce of credit for that. Many of those professors did everything possible to prevent me from succeeding, rather than empowering and encouraging me as good teachers should. Where I sought mentors, I found researchers disinterested in educating.
Kudos to Avenir for taking on those who have inordinate power and poor judgment while occupying the inappropriate position of a teaching professional! I wish I had the courage to stand up to them when I was there.
Good for him. I wish him every success in toppling the self-righteous egomaniacs who call themselves professors at Ryerson, and I hope he goes on to an accomplished career in his professional life to follow.
But should there be any doubt that this is all about lack of professional judgment in the university system, consider this: Usually 90% of the value of an engineering course is earned by students individually completing exams, while only 10% of the course value comes from assignments and there are usually some 5 to 10 assignments given over the span of the course. Isn’t it severe overkill to fail a student who has demonstrated a thorough understanding of course material by successfully completing the exams for an assignment worth only 1-2% of the course value? Expulsion from the program - regardless of any potential academic misconduct relating to the assignment - is like using a thermonuclear warhead to swat a mosquito on a deserted island to prevent it from settling on one’s arm.
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