Uni Students

[Barks]

Do the universities have a legal right to fine you for getting in trouble with the police?

I got in trouble in December for playing loud music late as night. Spoke to two council offers after they knocked on the door, spoke to the police in the morning. All apologies accepted, no hassle, just asked not to do it again.

I then get Sargent Jobsworth at the university send me a letter asking me and my house mates to attend a meeting. The outcome is that I have to pay a £30 fine.

Do they have the legal right to do that? The event happened outside term time in a house I pay rent for. I don't understand how it is legal for them to be able to do ANYTHING bar kick you out.

 

[Barks]

It is a privately rented house. The landlord has nothing to do with the university, he thinks the £30 is ridiculous.

 

[Barks]

It makes this all worse than the events happened outside term time. We're talking about Newcastle university if any of you by chance are here.

Should I write back to the student disciplinary officer and ask her to provide evidence that they have the legal authority to issue fines.

 

[Barks]

All I can find on the website is this:

Procedure A
Where the Head of the Student Progress Service so decides, s/he shall have the right to
deal with an allegation of misconduct. Where the Head of the Student Progress Service
is satisfied that a student has committed an act of misconduct, one or more of the
following sanctions may be imposed:
i) A warning, in writing, advising the student about future conduct. Where a student
has previously received a warning, or where the Head of the Student Progress
Service deems fit, the student may receive a final warning.
ii) A compensation payment for the direct cost of reparations to property.
iii) A fine.
The Head of the Student Progress Service may also impose additional or alternate
sanctions after consultation with the Disciplinary Convenor.

That does not explain how or why they are legally allowed to fine you.

 

[Barks]

That's as ridiculous as me getting in to trouble at my home address in Kent and them writing me a letter asking for £30.

I am seriously angry about this. This is not school. I am not a kid and those ****** should not have the ability to fine me over something which the police/council are OK with and the fact I apologised to all the neighbours, who were also fine.

 

[Barks]

I'm not denying that, I'm just playing along the lines that it wasn't during term time so does their ability to do this resume?

 

[Barks]

I'll pop in after my exam tomorrow, will let you know the outcome.

 

[Barks]

I haven't had time to go and see them as I'm frantically revising for another exam tomorrow.

Thats a good point.
Shouldnt the data protection act stop the police from telling them? (i know criminal records have some special cases in the act, but still, the uni shouldnt need to know)

They have a street representative who reports any complaints to the university. The police cannot pass on information as it's none of the university's business.

The problem is I live in an area was has been ruined by students. It was traditionally an affluent area. Now the students have come along and brought the chaos with them, making the area difficult for the majority of the residents. My music is a prime example.
Whilst I respect this and am willing to listen to the police if any trouble occurs. I do not see why the university think they have the right to try and regulate the area, especially when there are community police who do this already.

Next year we will not be registering our new address with the university unless they specifically request it. I pay those ******* thousands of pounds a year to provide an education, not to play the role of the police.

 

[Barks]

I had a similar thing a few years back. Basically, I used to sit in my room and have music on. Now i'm not inconsiderate, I checked myself by walking around that it wasn't carrying outside the room. With the door closed it was inaudible.

However this didn't matter to the jobsworth officer living at the end of my hall (a good twenty doors away). Apparantly he could hear it and that was that. I tried to prove to him that it wasn't me by testing to see if he could tell when it was on or not. One night I got woken up at 1am by him ranting that I was "keeping him up". How am I doing that with everything switched off, in a dark room, in bed?

In the end I got a letter telling me I had a "meeting" with the head of halls about it. I went around my floor, the one above, and the one below, and got near a hundred signatures saying that nobody had ever found it a nuisance. I got the two people either side of my room to come to the meeting to back me up.

And despite hearing all this, that same "officer" (who was one of the people in the meeting) was aggressive and adamant that I was totally in the wrong. The result? They fined me £60 for it.

One trip to the CAB later and the ******* recinded it. He also opened himself up for a whole load of trouble as well, it turns out that students don't take kindly to this kind of thing.

The summary? Fight it. The Uni are probably just trying to make a quick buck like everyone else, don't damn well let them.

The difference is that case is ridiculous as you were extremely considerate.

I on the other hand came home drunk at 3am and put my speakers on full volume. I'm completely in the wrong. The issue is whether it is right the university can issue fines.

 

[Barks]

To send or not to send?

Whilst I completely appreciate the university have to take responsibility for their students, it is not necessarily their prerogative to play the role of the police and/or council when it comes to privately rented accommodation, off-campus and outside term time. The police ensured me that there would be no consequences and the matter would be dropped with a formal warning hence my disappointment in the decision to issue a fine. Truthfully I do not believe we cause any severe problems in [our street], neither tarnish the reputation of the University. We have a good reputation with our neighbours and in particular the street representative, of whom we inform of any possible disturbances (parties) well in advance. I feel this is the first time I have been in trouble with the university and I am upset to have this incident kept on file.

 

[Barks]

I will not man up and pay up. It takes me 5 hours to earn the money to pay that fine. I don't want to be a bratt I just want honest proof that the university can do what they're doing. Final version... is that OK or do I sould a bit snobish?

Cheers,

Whilst I completely appreciate the university have to take responsibility for their students, it is not necessarily their prerogative to play the role of the police and/or council when it comes to privately rented accommodation, off-campus and especially outside of term time.
The police ensured me that there would be no consequences and the matter would be dropped with a formal warning hence my disappointment in the decision to issue a fine and keep this incident on my student file. Truthfully I do not believe my housemates or myself cause any severe problems in [street name] , neither tarnish the reputation of the University. We have a good reputation with our neighbours and in particular the street representative, of whom we inform of any possible disturbances (parties) well in advance.

I feel this is the first time I have been in trouble with the university and I am upset to have this incident kept on file. I apologised to the neighbours either side of my house the day after the incident. The police were unable to disclose where the complaint initiated from and thus I was unable to offer them an apology also. I appreciate that some of my housemates and I attended a meeting regarding an alternative incident during the first semester. It was quickly established that we were not responsible for the said complaint. Thus I do not understand how that meeting warranted any sort of warning that can be used to justify any “prior instruction to abate noise.” I feel the first thing I have done something remotely wrong the university have decided to respond unfairly.

As the police and the council were involved in this incident, I am completely willing to agree with their judgement and their outcome of the situation. If their involvement was not the case, then I would not have such an objection to any course of action the university were willing to take. I have been perfectly honest regarding this incident, I admitted straight away what had happened and I would appreciate the university to return this gesture by reconsidering their decision following this incident.

 

[Barks]

Don't send it, end of. Just pay up like a man, we all make mistakes in life it's how we react to them and what we learn from them that counts.

How would you like it if you were paying £90 a week to rent a private house and your university thinks they have the right to punish you for what happens within that property.

I really would appreciate proof that they have the legal right to do that. It is the bloody Police's job ffs.

 

[Barks]

your living in cuckoo land ^

Who?

The issue here is not about whether I'm in the right or the wrong, it's about whether the university have the legal right to issue fines. Threatening to kick that person out the university is acceptable, issuing fines is not.

I knew a guy who got into a serious fight with someone. He smashed their window and got arrested by the police. A week later the window had been repaired, he had paid for it and they residents were all friends again. Case closed. Had the university got involved, that poor bloke would probably have been chucked off his course and fined.

They are nothing more than a bunch of mini-Hitlers. Leave the job of enforcing law to the police, thank you.

 

[Barks]

That my friend is a very good point.

As for the previous bloke. I don't have a problem with people in positions of authority, I have a problem with people who think that they are when really they aren't that important.

 

[Barks]

Can anyone argue against my argument? Or have you ran out of moral high ground?

What do you reckon to this mate:

Scope
These procedures apply to student behaviour in the University, and this extends to all
buildings and grounds belonging to the University, including University Residences,
Sports Grounds, the University Farms and the University Research Vessel. The
procedures shall also apply to acts of misconduct committed outside the University when
a student is away in a University context, or when it is found that there is some link to the
University or its reputation. Discipline of students within the Union Society building shall
be the responsibility of officials of the Union Society nominated by the Society. The
Union Society has an agreement with the University which identifies matters which it will
report as a matter of course to the University and matters which it will report to the Police.
The agreement is subject to annual review. Examination and other assessment
irregularities are dealt with in accordance with the University "Procedure for Assessment
Irregularities"

That is really all I could find regarding this matter:
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/student-progress/documents/DisciplinaryProc.pdf

 

[Barks]

It's a bit grey though.

Jesus it's like me getting arrested for rape/murder and having the university come along and say "oh noes you tarnished our name" and give me another £30 fine.

 

[Barks]

I don't care about the fine I care about the fact this has gone on my student file.

I also care that other students will have been punished illegally and unnecessarily.

Technically I could be a real bitch about this and refuse to pay anything until they define their code of conduct in terms of this incident and explain why they can fine me.

 

[Barks]

And then they don't allow you to re-register/graduate. Is the grief really worth being uppity about a £30 fine. As for it being on your file, what impact is that really going to have unless you intend carrying on as accused. I agree with Alex2001 and Burnsy2023. Just man up and pay the fine, then brag about it on facebook and bitch about it some more.

That is illegal and no university would risk doing that unless their student had committed a severe offence.

 

[Barks]

How did the uni even find out? I had a meeting with my college master. It was one i organised with him, so not compulsory or arranged by him, yet my e-mail confirmation of the date still said if i missed it i would be fined £25. One of my mates sprayed a fire extinguisher everywhere, some **** dobbed him in and he got a £50 fine and was forced to do £70's worth of work for the cleaners on campus.

Seems uni's are there to make money first and give people degrees second.

People complain to the university. They obviously haven't heard of the police force and do it purely to get back at us students, and our street is supergrass on tap.

I also cannot believe during our meeting she threatened that I could be fined again if they received a complaint during any house parties we could hold. She said even if you warn all your neighbours, if we receive a complaint you can be fined. That in itself has no respect whatsoever for the rights of someone renting out private property.

To be fair about your mate, I agree that the university should be able to offer fines for incidents on campus and in university accommodation, but certainly NOT private property for which they should have no legal jurisdiction.

 

[Barks]

I really do not appreciate the obnoxious assumption by people on here that I fall under the typical inconsiderate student bracket. This is the first time it had happened. Are you trying to tell me you've never come back from a night out and made some noise? The student-occupied house either side of our house were also empty so I thought no one would be have been able to hear me anyway.

People in this country need to learn to man up/grow up and sort things themselves. Unless for some reason they are terrified of me, I don't see why they couldn't have knocked on my door in the morning and demanded assurance it wouldn't happen again. That's exactly what I would have done. It's exactly what the girls next door did earlier on in term and now if there's ever a problem they text me and I turn it down. If they did this and then I started playing loud music again, or I was extremely aggressive and obnoxious - THEN phone the university/police. It is what any decent, mature person would do - and in life if you treat someone with respect, they will return it.

It's a shame other people don't think like me, it would save the police time and money and cause less grief for everyone. Grassing up just ****** people off.