A classmate of his, who's also taking the semester off, and working full-time,
was just told by the head of NYU's Office of Student Conduct and Community
Standards that he's suspended all this year, through the summer, and will be
on probation all next year—because he had seven friends over at his house.
Some young Stasi-wannabe on Snapchat actually reported him to NYU, in
line with NYU's directive urging students to snitch on others (a measure that
some of my "progressive" colleagues here approve).
This at a moment when, as the New York Times has recently (and quietly)
reported, there are "no hotspots in the US," and (as the Times has not
reported) New York City's COVID-19 crisis is now over, epidemiologically
speaking. The wayward student talked at length with the commissar who
runs that office, trying to get some clarity on why this happened, since Gov.
Cuomo's order allows gatherings of ten or fewer people. He had seven people
over, in his home. He knew them all (all are New Yorkers), and knew they had
all been duly masked, and "social-distancing." The commissar could not
explain what rules the now-suspended student broke, just that his "behavior"
was improper, and that that gathering could have been a "superspreader event"
(just like that bikers' rally in Sturgis, S.D., which seems to have caused just a
handful of new "cases"; but not like all those BLM protests—huge and noisy
gatherings that NYU's leadership applauded, and that, magically, "spread"
nothing, since COVID-19 only strikes "deplorables").
So, on the basis of mere bureaucratic whim (and a lot of fear and ignorance),
NYU is punishing a student for entirely legal "congregation" in his own home,
when he's not even enrolled at NYU.
This kind of thing is happening at universities and colleges from coast to
coast, as one school after another makes the whole experience of "higher
education" as unenjoyable and punitive as possible, while still charging
exorbitant tuition/fees (NYU being among the costliest schools in the US).
Thus those schools are not just doing their students wrong, but cutting
their own throats.
I think this ought to make some news; so if anyone has any ideas as to
how that might be done, feel free to let me know, or use this email as you
see fit.
MCM