OSU's criteria for suspending students arbitrary and unclear

OSU’s criteria for suspending students arbitrary and unclear

Lantern staff editorial

The administration said the students who were arrested two weekends ago were suspended because they were a danger to society. We think the administration should have some concrete guidelines on who they decide to suspend and who they allow to attend classes. During the Notre Dame game weekend only three of the 17 arrested on 12th Avenue were students. These three students were charged with disorderly conduct and suspended by the university. This last weekend, 37 students were arrested for underage drinking, violating the open container law and disorderly conduct. But none of these students were suspended by the university, including the disorderly conduct charge ‘ the same charge that got three students suspended one week earlier.One weekend, college students are deemed as problems and handled with 10 day suspensions, and the next weekend those college students are just children and their cases are dismissed.The administration is said to be reviewing these types of cases individually. The same crime has been committed, the only difference is when the crime has been committed. Disorderly conduct is the same no matter what weekend or night a person is arrested. We challenge the administration to have some consistency in deciding who is worthy of the administration’s arbitrary suspension, and who they deem as college students just being kids.There needs to be a written policy that is free from vagueness. The current policy does not inform anyone of anything except that the matter is completely handled by the administration. The administration wants this vagueness in their policy so it can be interpreted as they wish it to be. There should be concise guidelines informing the student population of the consequences that could be enforced on them by the university. This is an acceptable request to ensure that in the future these decisions of the administration are not contested.The administration needs to realize that the students they are trying to rule over, are the students paying their salary, and they would not be in their position without OSU students.These students ‘tested’ the administration, specifically Gee, last weekend, and no further action was taken against these students. Either the administration made a mistake in suspending the first group of students and realized their pitfall, or they think the point has been made to the students to behave. But how can he discriminate between the students? If there was a mistake in suspending the three students, then apologize and reinstate the suspended students.If the administration is going to be the parental figure in the lives of their students, they must be consistent in their punishments for the students to take them seriously.