They are in a specialized program in person, even if I agree study a round in Boston” is dumb. I doubt there is a remote option. My kids SLAC has a very limited remote option. My kids on campus in mostly in person and hybrid. If he was kicked off campus, he’d have only 4 out of 18 credits he could do remotely. However dumb “study abroad in Boston” is, “study abroad from your basement” is never gonna happen. |
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Correct me if I’m wrong but this is a faster and more extreme punishment than campus rapists receive — especially if they play a sport?
Unreal. |
Agree here. I don't get those crowing in the rosy glow of judgmentalism. These are kids, no matter what documents they signed. Had this been a repeat offense, then I would support the expulsion. But for kids away from home for the first time and still in teenage mode it makes Northeastern look more bad than the kids. A more proportionate punishment would be to send them back home to study remotely for the year. Expulsion for a first time offense (and for the crime of gathering in a hotel room) is overly dramatic. It's very petty. |
Yes. This is true. Yes, it's unreal. It's wildly out of proportion to what actually happened. It looks like a flat-out money grab by the school. |
My LAC freshman (not Northeastern) is studying at home this semester (we don’t have a basement) and so are kids from a lot of colleges. I don’t understand your statement. |
A kid who can’t behave doesn’t deserve $70k/yr for college from the bank of mom and dad. Plenty of hard-working kids with good character have to literally scramble to pay for a college with loans and jobs. |
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I'm just going to throw this out here. The day it happened, within hours, one student posted on a popular Northeastern forum with a throw away account. The student was part of the group. At the time of the post, I guess suspension was pending. Allegedly, it was a group of kids dorming on the same floor. They were hanging out in the hallway, wearing masks and distancing. The student said it was about 10 kids, so 11 seems legit. They were talking and that's it. Student got a lot of support on post from other students and a few professors. I'm sure the kid deleted the thread by now.
There were more details. I haven't read any articles. My info is just from the day it happened. |
Completely agree with this |
They are trying to show other students they mean business. Adults following through is a good thing. Most good parents already know that lesson. |
That sounds like a sanitized version of the story someone created to tell their mom. I can’t imagine the university would have acted so strongly against 11 masked kids chatting in the hall. |
They are in a specialized program meant to mimic study abroad, but in Boston. So their classes are almost certainly not all remote. They are likely taking small group field trips are the area and involved in the community. It’s ridiculous to call this “study abroad”. But it means there wouldn’t be a remote class to plug these kids into. They were deferred for a semester to “study abroad”. They can’t take general NEU classes. That defeats the purpose of deferral. They can’t do whatever their fake study abroad program syllabus is remotely— it’s supposed to be hands on in Boston. There probably isn’t a remote class for them to take. And NEU isn’t obligated to create one because they couldn’t follow the rules. IOW, you can’t “study abroad” from home. |
I would totally believe the university would have acted this irrationally. Why do you think otherwise? |
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Northeastern has been in sketchy territory since they dreamed up the “admit extra kids to their freshman class, but send them abroad for the first semester” because we don’t have dorm space. Then NE can’t commit to the semester abroad due to Covid, so they plan Boston semester abroad. Money grabbers. Many schools have sent kids home to DL due to big parties, but it seems NE is once again, taking the money.
It’s obvious the NE model is to take the money and run. Well done Northeastern! |
| Yeah, NE should have granted these kids a gap semester. Study abroad in Boston is a joke. |
I went to a fancy Ivy and most of my classmates were well behaved and smart (after all, we had to be in order to get into the school in the first place). But we were still kids when we arrived on campus. Many of us, nice kids from good families with loving and responsible parents, still made mistakes in our first year. It's all part of growing up. That's why I side with leniency in something like this situation. Sending these 11 kids home for the rest of the semester is sufficient punishment and matches the crime. Not only is expulsion excessive, it also doesn't teach the 11 kids a lesson they can learn from. They are viciously punished for doing something no one would have batted an eye about back in January. |