Spring Break
President Perry helps define the term 'threat'
Staff Report
Issue date: 3/5/09 Section: News
In relation to the recent alleged threats posted on Facebook by Robert Walker, Associate News Editor Emily Zulz sat down with President Bill Perry to define, in general terms, what constitutes as a threat and the meaning of a university ban.
How would you define a threat?
It can be an action on the part of a student. It could be to threaten physical violence, bodily harm to another person.
It could be posting some sort of written notice of an intent to cause harm to individuals or university facilities.
That positing could be on a physical posting of paper or something like that, or it could be a posting on a Web site or a social network page.
It would have to be something that would cause a reasonable person to be concerned and to believe that there was a potential threat to individuals or to the university facilities with consequences for members of the campus community.
With Web sites, social networks and the vastness of the Internet, does the university try to monitor these things?
We're not monitoring these things. We're not an Internet police or anything like that. Because of the widespread and almost ubiquitous nature of these networks and so on, we become aware of some postings and so forth from third parties.
You have a student who's posted something. You have the university. Someone else will see the posting and be concerned, and they tell some university office about it. Sometimes it can even come from someone outside the university who's seen it or picked up on it, but we don't monitor these sites.
What does it mean to be banned from the university?
It is within the authority of the university to tell a person they may not come on to the campus. If they then decide to do so, it's a trespass and subject to criminal proceeding.
It would be a directive; it would be delivered in an official way.
It's not just students to whom this could be applied. It could be non-students as well. It could be employees.
It's an action that's rare, but it's one we take when it's warranted.
Is being banned similar to being expelled? Would that person still be a student?
They could still be a student, but in some sort of suspended status.
If the student is doing what (he or she) is supposed to be doing - going to class, getting their work done, what one would consider normal activities for a student - this wouldn't be something that would come up.
Now, if a student or an employee were to exhibit behaviors, take certain actions that would lead us to believe they should not come on campus, the individual would be informed of that.
In the case of a student, typically an action that would result in being banned from campus would be an action that caused us concern and would likely be connected with a suspension or some other action like that.
What is the process to determine the length of a ban?
If a ban was put in place that connected with a suspension, for example … there has to be … the hearings or investigation that might be connected with resolving the issue that led to the suspension.
Once that is resolved, then it could be that the ban could be lifted or it could be that the ban could be continued.
How is a ban different from being suspended or expelled?
In general, banning someone from campus is independent of these others, but in reality, an action on part of a student that would lead to a ban is likely also an action that could lead to disciplinary processes - the process where the student has an opportunity to respond to whatever concerns the university has raised about the student's behavior or actions.
Could someone be put on a ban first and then go through disciplinary processes?
You could have a student behave or act in such a way that we felt the ban was a very important step to take, to have the student removed from campus.
At the same time, then it may be that the action caused or behavior that caused the university to institute the ban would be something that would result in a suspension or some other type of action that would cause another proceeding to take place to resolve that.
There's no formula. Each case is individual because each student is individual.
So each case is individual, and the range of actions taken by the university or a combination of actions taken by the university would be the ones the university felt served the best interests of the university and the campus community.
Once a process spelled out in our policies is instituted, then of course we follow that using whatever advisory bodies might be justified in the policy. It could be an internal governing policy, board of trustee regulations, standard of student conduct.
You have a student who's posted something. You have the university. Someone else will see the posting and be concerned, and they tell some university office about it. Sometimes it can even come from someone outside the university who's seen it or picked up on it, but we don't monitor these sites.
What does it mean to be banned from the university?
It is within the authority of the university to tell a person they may not come on to the campus. If they then decide to do so, it's a trespass and subject to criminal proceeding.
It would be a directive; it would be delivered in an official way.
It's not just students to whom this could be applied. It could be non-students as well. It could be employees.
It's an action that's rare, but it's one we take when it's warranted.
Is being banned similar to being expelled? Would that person still be a student?
They could still be a student, but in some sort of suspended status.
If the student is doing what (he or she) is supposed to be doing - going to class, getting their work done, what one would consider normal activities for a student - this wouldn't be something that would come up.
Now, if a student or an employee were to exhibit behaviors, take certain actions that would lead us to believe they should not come on campus, the individual would be informed of that.
In the case of a student, typically an action that would result in being banned from campus would be an action that caused us concern and would likely be connected with a suspension or some other action like that.
What is the process to determine the length of a ban?
If a ban was put in place that connected with a suspension, for example … there has to be … the hearings or investigation that might be connected with resolving the issue that led to the suspension.
Once that is resolved, then it could be that the ban could be lifted or it could be that the ban could be continued.
How is a ban different from being suspended or expelled?
In general, banning someone from campus is independent of these others, but in reality, an action on part of a student that would lead to a ban is likely also an action that could lead to disciplinary processes - the process where the student has an opportunity to respond to whatever concerns the university has raised about the student's behavior or actions.
Could someone be put on a ban first and then go through disciplinary processes?
You could have a student behave or act in such a way that we felt the ban was a very important step to take, to have the student removed from campus.
At the same time, then it may be that the action caused or behavior that caused the university to institute the ban would be something that would result in a suspension or some other type of action that would cause another proceeding to take place to resolve that.
There's no formula. Each case is individual because each student is individual.
So each case is individual, and the range of actions taken by the university or a combination of actions taken by the university would be the ones the university felt served the best interests of the university and the campus community.
Once a process spelled out in our policies is instituted, then of course we follow that using whatever advisory bodies might be justified in the policy.
It could be an internal governing policy, board of trustee regulations, standard of student conduct.
How would you define a threat?
It can be an action on the part of a student. It could be to threaten physical violence, bodily harm to another person.
It could be posting some sort of written notice of an intent to cause harm to individuals or university facilities.
That positing could be on a physical posting of paper or something like that, or it could be a posting on a Web site or a social network page.
It would have to be something that would cause a reasonable person to be concerned and to believe that there was a potential threat to individuals or to the university facilities with consequences for members of the campus community.
With Web sites, social networks and the vastness of the Internet, does the university try to monitor these things?
We're not monitoring these things. We're not an Internet police or anything like that. Because of the widespread and almost ubiquitous nature of these networks and so on, we become aware of some postings and so forth from third parties.
You have a student who's posted something. You have the university. Someone else will see the posting and be concerned, and they tell some university office about it. Sometimes it can even come from someone outside the university who's seen it or picked up on it, but we don't monitor these sites.
What does it mean to be banned from the university?
It is within the authority of the university to tell a person they may not come on to the campus. If they then decide to do so, it's a trespass and subject to criminal proceeding.
It would be a directive; it would be delivered in an official way.
It's not just students to whom this could be applied. It could be non-students as well. It could be employees.
It's an action that's rare, but it's one we take when it's warranted.
Is being banned similar to being expelled? Would that person still be a student?
They could still be a student, but in some sort of suspended status.
If the student is doing what (he or she) is supposed to be doing - going to class, getting their work done, what one would consider normal activities for a student - this wouldn't be something that would come up.
Now, if a student or an employee were to exhibit behaviors, take certain actions that would lead us to believe they should not come on campus, the individual would be informed of that.
In the case of a student, typically an action that would result in being banned from campus would be an action that caused us concern and would likely be connected with a suspension or some other action like that.
What is the process to determine the length of a ban?
If a ban was put in place that connected with a suspension, for example … there has to be … the hearings or investigation that might be connected with resolving the issue that led to the suspension.
Once that is resolved, then it could be that the ban could be lifted or it could be that the ban could be continued.
How is a ban different from being suspended or expelled?
In general, banning someone from campus is independent of these others, but in reality, an action on part of a student that would lead to a ban is likely also an action that could lead to disciplinary processes - the process where the student has an opportunity to respond to whatever concerns the university has raised about the student's behavior or actions.
Could someone be put on a ban first and then go through disciplinary processes?
You could have a student behave or act in such a way that we felt the ban was a very important step to take, to have the student removed from campus.
At the same time, then it may be that the action caused or behavior that caused the university to institute the ban would be something that would result in a suspension or some other type of action that would cause another proceeding to take place to resolve that.
There's no formula. Each case is individual because each student is individual.
So each case is individual, and the range of actions taken by the university or a combination of actions taken by the university would be the ones the university felt served the best interests of the university and the campus community.
Once a process spelled out in our policies is instituted, then of course we follow that using whatever advisory bodies might be justified in the policy. It could be an internal governing policy, board of trustee regulations, standard of student conduct.
You have a student who's posted something. You have the university. Someone else will see the posting and be concerned, and they tell some university office about it. Sometimes it can even come from someone outside the university who's seen it or picked up on it, but we don't monitor these sites.
What does it mean to be banned from the university?
It is within the authority of the university to tell a person they may not come on to the campus. If they then decide to do so, it's a trespass and subject to criminal proceeding.
It would be a directive; it would be delivered in an official way.
It's not just students to whom this could be applied. It could be non-students as well. It could be employees.
It's an action that's rare, but it's one we take when it's warranted.
Is being banned similar to being expelled? Would that person still be a student?
They could still be a student, but in some sort of suspended status.
If the student is doing what (he or she) is supposed to be doing - going to class, getting their work done, what one would consider normal activities for a student - this wouldn't be something that would come up.
Now, if a student or an employee were to exhibit behaviors, take certain actions that would lead us to believe they should not come on campus, the individual would be informed of that.
In the case of a student, typically an action that would result in being banned from campus would be an action that caused us concern and would likely be connected with a suspension or some other action like that.
What is the process to determine the length of a ban?
If a ban was put in place that connected with a suspension, for example … there has to be … the hearings or investigation that might be connected with resolving the issue that led to the suspension.
Once that is resolved, then it could be that the ban could be lifted or it could be that the ban could be continued.
How is a ban different from being suspended or expelled?
In general, banning someone from campus is independent of these others, but in reality, an action on part of a student that would lead to a ban is likely also an action that could lead to disciplinary processes - the process where the student has an opportunity to respond to whatever concerns the university has raised about the student's behavior or actions.
Could someone be put on a ban first and then go through disciplinary processes?
You could have a student behave or act in such a way that we felt the ban was a very important step to take, to have the student removed from campus.
At the same time, then it may be that the action caused or behavior that caused the university to institute the ban would be something that would result in a suspension or some other type of action that would cause another proceeding to take place to resolve that.
There's no formula. Each case is individual because each student is individual.
So each case is individual, and the range of actions taken by the university or a combination of actions taken by the university would be the ones the university felt served the best interests of the university and the campus community.
Once a process spelled out in our policies is instituted, then of course we follow that using whatever advisory bodies might be justified in the policy.
It could be an internal governing policy, board of trustee regulations, standard of student conduct.
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