Dear Ethel | Issue 18

Dear Ethel | Issue 18

A Visit to the Proctor

Dear Ethel,

I read some stuff in Critic and it made me think about what happened to me last year. It didn’t seem fair, but I didn’t think I could do anything about it. I was out with my flatmate and got pretty wasted. Campus Watch offered me a ride home. Of course, I accepted! Home safe and feeling pretty stoked about CW. But the next morning, I get a call saying I was a “code something” and had to see the proctor. 

I asked what it was about, but they wouldn’t tell me. I went to see him and he told me that I was there to listen to him, not talk. He then gave me a right telling off for not looking after myself. But I was looking after myself? I used the service we’re told about to get home safely? And so what if I was drunk? I made a good decision and I get a grilling for it. Could it have gone any differently?

W hile the outcome might not have been that different, you could definitely have taken a support person, such as an OUSA advocate, with you to meet with the proctor. Unfortunately, students don’t seem to be told this is an option, but it definitely is. An advocate will ask for you to be given a chance to be heard by the proctor, at the very least. With regard to being told off for doing the right thing, I hear you! It’s the reason why OUSA has a very distinct programme called Are You OK? run by the Student Support Centre to ensure the wellbeing and safety of students at OUSA events. It’s being looked after, a lift home if needed, and no questions asked because it’s a safety service, not a discipline process. We might check up to see you’re okay the next day if you were really messy, but certainly not to tell you off. It seems a bit confusing that the safety service provided by the university also crosses into policing student behaviour. My concern is that this may ultimately prevent students who are in need from engaging with the university’s safety services. So, in short, it may not have gone too differently with the proctor, but we would have supported you, ensured you had a voice and raised our concerns about the process with the university if necessary.

This article first appeared in Issue 18, 2015.
Posted 3:12pm Sunday 2nd August 2015 by Student Support.