YUFA
Executive
The following letter from the YUFA Executive has been delivered today to President Marsden.
May 19, 2004
Dear President Marsden
The YUFA Executive and YUFA Stewards Council wish to express concern over
the extraordinarily long suspension of York student Daniel Freeman-Maloy
and the procedures used to determine the suspension.
The YUFA Executive is
especially concerned about the procedure used to arrive at this lengthy
suspension. In particular, Presidential Regulation Number 2, The Conduct
of Students at York, was developed to deal with cases involving a breach
of student conduct rules. As you know, this regulation
describes a process that involves a hearing before a Trial Panel of the
University Discipline Tribunal. As well, the process allows a student to
ask for a review of a sanction through the Appeal Panel of the University
Discipline Tribunal established by Presidential Regulation Number 3 and
public access to a Panel's decision and its basis.
The YUFA Executive is concerned that the President should adopt what is,
as far as we know, the exceptional procedure of determining the punishment
of a student through consultation with the Board of Governors and without
recourse to the Presidential Regulations that specify a fair and impartial
hearing and appeal process. We note further that Presidential Regulation #
2 provides for Emergency Orders.
The YUFA Executive recognizes the tension within the York community over
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Nonetheless, we are concerned that the
lack of an open process for deciding the suspension of a student involved
in the dispute can give the wider community the impression that our
university is not a forum for the free exchange of ideas.
A number of YUFA members have written to you about the severity of the
penalty imposed on this student and the absence of a normal appeal
process. Similarly, the YUFA Executive urges you to reconsider Mr.
Freeman-Maloy's suspension in light of procedures detailed in the
Presidential Regulations.
Sincerely,
Jay Rahn, Acting
President
YUFA
c.c. Members of YUFA