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St. Louis Community College Makes Mockery of Due Process
ST. LOUIS, January 8, 2008鈥昐t. Louis Community College at Meramec (STLCC) is adding new outrages to its campaign against student Jun Xiao, who was charged with 鈥渉azing鈥 and 鈥渄isorderly conduct鈥 after he sent e-mails inviting his classmates to join him in signing up for a class at another college. Last week, STLCC conceded that it could not punish Xiao鈥攚ho was put on probation and banned from e-mailing his classmates鈥攆or his constitutionally protected e-mails. But rather than revoking his punishment, the college kept him on probation, citing new allegations including an absurd charge that Xiao asked too many questions in his organic chemistry class. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (果冻传媒app官方) is calling on STLCC to end this mockery of due process and to provide its students with the fundamental rights to which they are entitled.
鈥淪TLCC is fooling nobody with these new allegations against Jun Xiao,鈥 FIREPresident Greg Lukianoff said. 鈥淗am-handedly attempting to make the crime fit the punishment is the very opposite of justice. STLCC鈥檚 charges against Xiao are absurd, and its procedures contradict even the most rudimentary notions of due process. This cannot be allowed to stand.鈥
Xiao, who already holds a Ph.D. from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and has postdoctoral training from MIT and Columbia, signed up for classes at STLCC to fulfill medical school entrance requirements. He e-mailed his Organic Chemistry I classmates in October 2007, informing them that he was withdrawing from the class and asking if anyone would like to retake it with him. In a second e-mail, he informed his classmates of his intention to take Organic Chemistry II at another community college and asked if anyone might like to take it there with him.
On October 24, Xiao received a letter from Acting Vice President of Student Affairs Daniel R. Herbst, who informed him that he had been placed on 鈥淒isciplinary Probation鈥 for the 2007-2008 academic year and that he was prohibited from contacting other STLCC students by e-mail. The letter also stated that Herbst鈥攚ithout a hearing鈥攈ad already found Xiao guilty of hazing, obstruction or disruption of teaching, disorderly conduct, and failure to comply with directions of a college official. Herbst refused to provide any written clarification of the complaints and charges against Xiao, and he personally denied Xiao鈥檚 first appeal of his findings.
Xiao contacted 果冻传媒app官方, which wrote to STLCC President Paul Pai on December 4, reminding him of the college鈥檚 obligations as a public institution to uphold students鈥 rights to free speech and basic due process. The ACLU of Eastern Missouri sent President Pai a similar letter on December 19.
On January 5, Xiao received a letter from Student Appellate Hearing Committee chair Denise Sperruzza, informing him that Daniel Herbst was 鈥渄ismissing all allegations relating to your inappropriate use of [e-mail]鈥 because 鈥測ou may have a constitutional right to send e-mails to other students.鈥 Nevertheless, Sperruzza informed Xiao that his disciplinary probation would remain pending his appeal because of 鈥渢he remaining allegations of misconduct鈥濃攐f which Xiao was unaware until receiving Sperruzza鈥檚 letter.
Xiao believed鈥攅ven after Herbst had denied his appeal鈥攖hat all of the charges against him stemmed from his e-mails to his classmates and from an exchange he had had with a dean. Sperruzza鈥檚 letter, however, informed Xiao for the first time that the 鈥渙bstruction of teaching鈥 charge was based on 鈥渄elaying the class with repeating of questions regarding material that had either previously been covered in the course or knowledge that you should have had prior to coming into the course.鈥 The letter also informed Xiao that the 鈥渄isorderly conduct鈥 charge stemmed from an alleged incident 鈥渨hen you were verbally abusive towards the Chemistry secretary.鈥 The letter set a date of January 11 for the appellate hearing, leaving Xiao only six days in which to prepare a defense against allegations that he was seeing for the very first time.
鈥淴iao has received no specific notice of the charges against him, has had no real hearings, was forced to 鈥榓ppeal鈥 to the same person who originally found him guilty, and now has learned that the allegations against him have changed while his punishment remains suspiciously identical,鈥 FIREDirector of Legal and Public Advocacy Samantha Harris said. 鈥淓ven asking questions in class is now apparently a disciplinary matter at STLCC. FIREcalls on President Pai to put an end to this warped series of injustices immediately and to investigate how STLCC has managed to so thoroughly abandon due process and free speech.鈥
FIRE is a nonprofit educational foundation that unites civil rights and civil liberties leaders, scholars, journalists, and public intellectuals from across the political and ideological spectrum on behalf of individual rights, due process, freedom of expression, academic freedom, and rights of conscience at our nation鈥檚 colleges and universities. 果冻传媒app官方鈥檚 efforts to preserve liberty on campuses across America can be viewed at thefire.org.
CONTACT:
Samantha Harris, Director of Legal and Public Advocacy, 果冻传媒app官方: 215-717-3473; samantha@thefire.org
Paul Pai, President, St. Louis Community College at Meramec: 314-984-7763; ppai@stlcc.edu
Daniel Herbst, Acting Vice President of Student Affairs, St. Louis Community College at Meramec: 314-984-7607; dherbst@stlcc.edu
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