Some of you will have seen the post the other day. Apparently I made a girl “uncomfortable” via a text exchange (I assure you, there was nothing untoward on my part).
I pressed the University for details, and now I am told I am being formally investigated. They’ve formally accused me of misconduct, now, and told me that I must speak to them over the phone, this week…
For various reasons I won’t go into, I simply cannot do the phone thing, this week. I just can’t. I’ve told them so, and I’ve also told them that I will be seeking legal advice.
They linked me to a web page which essentially, very nebulously, outlines that anyone can make an allegation against a student, even anonymously, and it will be investigated, even if the situation in question has nothing to do with the University…
It even says “Anything can be sexual harassment, even if it only occurs once”. So I gather that is what I am up for…
Fuck me. This is so fucked…
It depends. If universities in Australia are allowed to expel students for any reason without the student having a right to sue the university or appeal to a court, which is likely, they can likely do whatever the fuck they want to any student.
The relationship between university and student is contractual, with the school holding all the power.
If you are playing a video game and Blizzard decides to ban you, you can't really go to a lawyer over it, can you? Unless universities in Australia are subject to some kind of special law which gives them legal rights in disciplinary proceedings, you're basically in the same situation where you're at their mercy.
I just don't know. I really, really don't know...
I can't fight this, this week. Like, I simply cannot. So I won't be able to figure any of that out until at least next week.
Unfortunately they know all that. They know they're going after me when I'm exceptionally vulnerable.
All I can really do is palm them off until I have even the slightest mental capacity to deal with this...
Yeah, you definitely could, but most people won't.
Even if a lawyer is completely useless in this case, which I doubt, better to pay and remove all doubt. Lawyers are the civil version of mercenaries, you want to retain them.
I actually can, since their tos doesn't trump eu law.