The Ontario Superior Court refused to overrule the university’s sanctions on law students punished for misrepresenting their grades to Bay St. law firms in last spring’s infamous “first-year scandal.” The court ruled last Friday that the school can discipline students in cases involving a third party, and not just for curricular offences.
“There is nothing in the language [of U of T’s Code of Conduct] to confine its scope to communications within the university,” the decision stated.
The decision followed a judicial review application by Roxanne Shank, one of the students suspended.
Despite the ruling, the court was critical of Shank’s own suspension, since she was punished for admitting an academic offence though she maintained that she did not knowingly change her grades. The matter was returned to the university for review.
“Obviously we’re disappointed, but we’re also quite worried about it,” said Paul Kendal from the Student Administrative Council (SAC), a group that was intervening on Shank’s behalf.
SAC was arguing that the code only applies to transmissions within the university, due to the fact that the preamble specifies teacher/student relationships. “They decided that that was not the case because there was nothing in the specific language, in the section of the code, dealing with misrepresentation that deals with that point,” said Kendal.
He added, “It means that all kinds of communication is now suddenly considered protected under the code that never was before.”
Story to be followed in the Thursday issue
