University students everywhere frequently engage in conduct that is frowned upon by the outside world. Our so-called deviant behaviour, including drug use, excessive alcohol consumption and sexual promiscuity, are part of campus culture and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

School officials generally turn a blind eye on these issues, and with good reason. A university is a place where students should be able to experience the transgression of boundaries, both intellectual and personal. Crossing over these horizons is how we learn, and we should therefore be thankful that campus police don’t spend their time trawling for late-night pot smokers on university grounds.

But there is one type of deviant behaviour that school officials should never close their eyes to. The use of violence by one student against another must always be treated as an issue of fundamental importance. Anyone who takes part in it forfeits his or her right to be regarded as a student engaged in the educational pursuits that are the life-blood of the university experience.

Even minor student-on-student violence is antithetical to the foundation of what a university stands for. We are all here, explicitly, to learn how to solve problems with our thoughts, ideas and words, not by violently imposing our will on others.

Campus life is not just about attending lectures and memorizing material, it is about being able to freely ask questions and express thoughts in the pursuit of knowledge, without fearing any negative repercussions to your person.

Physical aggression on school grounds impacts more people than just those directly involved. Such acts shake the trust we must have in our peers in order to learn alongside them every day. They violate the feelings of safety and community that are essential to the university’s learning environment.

After a fight outside a history lecture at Trinity College on March 6, students in HIS 242H1 had to spend the rest of the term seated next to men they knew were capable of and prone to physical violence. TAs and students in their tutorials had to engage with them intimately. During the course’s final exam, a uniformed security officer patrolled the classroom. Members of the class reported feeling unsafe.

It would be an exaggeration to say that the altercation terrorized the class’ students. But if just one person feared for his or her own safety in class as a result of the incident, then the pursuit of education at U of T has been dealt a serious blow.

The administration’s apparent lack of action against those involved in the March incident is a disturbing fact. It has been over two months since the fight took place, and Trinity College has yet to conclude its investigation or determine who was responsible. The only sanction dealt out to the antagonists has been that two of them were removed from tutorials at the request of fearful TAs. This was hardly punishment, as the two were privately tutored by the professor herself. In short, the school did little to ensure a safe learning environment for students and teachers.

University officials need to take a firm stance against those who have committed violence on campus. Trinity should conclude its investigation and withhold credits from whoever is found responsible. It should be the aggressors’ academic pursuits that suffer from their violent actions, not everyone else’s. For our time here to be successful, students must be assured that the university environment will always be one of peace.