Considering GleeGate 2012, the bizarre incident in which a student at the very conservative Bob Jones University faces expulsion due to his love for a Fox television serious focused on a high school glee club, it’s time to point out that are still several universities in the United States with similarly restrictive codes about student behavior.
Today, for instance, Josh Glasstetter at People for the American Way wrote about the handbook of student behavior produced by Liberty University, the fundamentalist college founded by the Rev. Jerry Fallwell:
The Liberty Way sets out a regimen of fines and reprimands for, among many other things, attending a dance, drinking, entering a residence hall for members of the opposite sex, and so on. Here are some highlights, including “Two or more individuals of the opposite sex together in motel room”:
6 Reprimands + $25.00 Fine
• Attendance at a dance
• Entering entryway of opposite sex on campus or allowing the same
• Possession and/or use of tobacco
12 Reprimands + $50.00 Fine
• Entering the residence hallway of the opposite sex or allowing the same
• Students of the opposite sex visiting alone at an off-campus residence
30 Reprimands + $500.00 Fine + 30 hours Disciplinary Community Service + possible Administrative Withdrawal. NOTE: For each accumulation of six (6) or more reprimands after 30, an additional $150 fine will be assessed.
• Possession or consumption of alcoholic beverages
• Refusal to submit to an Alco-Sensor test and/or drug test
• Spending the night with a person of the opposite sex
• Two or more individuals of the opposite sex together in motel room
Does anyone else think it’s weird that in terms of castigation at Liberty drinking a beer is roughly the disciplinary equivalent spending the night in a motel room, potentially having sex?
At most schools neither of those things would be any of the university’s business if the students where over 21.
Questions:
What if five people (three women, two men—girls sleep in the beds, boys have sleeping bags on the floor) spend the night together in motel room? Orgy, or just a small bible study group on a trip trying to save some cash?
Why a motel room? Would the punishment be less severe if they stayed in a hotel?
