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Student Expelled for Death Threat Against Former UBC President Martha Piper
Posted By Neal Yonson On July 22, 2011 @ 12:36 pm In Asides | Comments Disabled
Student Expelled for Death Threat Against Former UBC President Martha PiperStudents can sometimes misbehave, just ask the UNA. Which is why, every year, UBC’s University Counsel office posts a summary of student discipline imposed by the President for both academic and non-academic infractions. In June, the summary for the 2009-2010 Academic Year [1] was quietly released.
The most surprising revelation from the summary is that a student was expelled for making a death threat against former UBC President Martha Piper and her family. This is not merely a breach of UBC conduct, but a criminal action. The student was the only one forced to leave UBC permanently in 2009-2010. After Hwi Lee’s bomb threat against the BioSciences building [2] in January 2008, there is no leniency given to students who threaten the lives of others, nor should there be.
Discipline: Expelled from the University and a permanent record of the disciplinary action entered on the student’s transcript. (Summary #48)
However, this incident actually pre-dates the BioSciences threat by almost 5 years. In 2003, Ubyssey reported (page 3) [3] a death threat against Piper and her family during a TA strike. Court records show that in 2005, a grad student named Amirali Mirsayah was found guilty of making the threats and sentenced to one year of probation [4]. A subsequent appeal was denied [5] in 2007. While the criminal case was occurring, the student requested that the disciplinary hearings be delayed. It must be noted that Mirsayah was not attending UBC throughout this time. Once it was clear the criminal case was over, UBC resumed the disciplinary process against him. Despite being expelled, he still lists having a Ph.D. from UBC. Perhaps appropriately, he also lists himself as president of a company called “New Life Consultants, Inc.”
As for the rest of the report on student discipline, the majority of the cases of academic discipline involve plagiarism or cheating. The penalty accompanying these infractions is generally a mark of zero in the course and/or a 4-8 month suspension from the university. While there is certainly far more cheating and plagiarism going on at a large university than is contained in the discipline summary, dozens of people do get caught every year and the penalties can be substantial.
However, the vagueness of the descriptions can lead to some head-scratchers about the standardization, or lack thereof, of punishment.
At other times, the detail included can seem more than is necessary.
It’s safe to say this certainly never would have happened with an Android phone! Even more interesting are the instances of non-academic misconduct.
At UBC Okanagan, they use the discipline process to police dorms. Why isn’t this dealt with within the residence system? Using a presidential discipline process for underage drinking is not an appropriate use of those resources.
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URL to article: http://ubcinsiders.ca/2011/07/student-expelled-for-death-threat-against-former-ubc-president-martha-piper/
URLs in this post:
[1] 2009-2010 Academic Year: http://universitycounsel.ubc.ca/files/2011/06/09-10.pdf
[2] bomb threat against the BioSciences building: http://ubyssey.ca/features/looking-back-at-the-biosciences-threat/
[3] Ubyssey reported (page 3): http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/pdfs/ubyssey/UBYSSEY_2003_04_04.pdf
[4] sentenced to one year of probation: http://www.canlii.org/en/bc/bcpc/doc/2005/2005bcpc608/2005bcpc608.html
[5] appeal was denied: http://www.canlii.org/en/bc/bcsc/doc/2007/2007bcsc1596/2007bcsc1596.html
[6] Image: http://ubcinsiders.ca/wp/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/AmiraliMirsayah.png
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