This is outrageous:
Without affording him the hearing he was entitled to under TU’s University Student Conduct Policies & Procedures, and despite his husband’s affidavit, Tanaka found Barnett responsible for “harassment.” Tanaka also found Barnett guilty of retaliation and violating confidentiality requirements for speaking about the disciplinary charges with his husband—who was also his exculpatory witness.
Less than two months before Barnett was set to graduate, Tanaka not only suspended him until at least 2016 but also permanently banned him from receiving a degree in his major even upon his re-enrollment. Barnett was forced to wait two months for TU to respond to his appeal, which the university summarily denied on January 9 without explanation—leaving Barnett unable to earn his theater degree as planned.
I don’t think a theater degree is worth all that much, but he probably paid a lot for it, and he should at a minimum be reimbursed (though one can’t give him back the lost years of his life). But actually, as Glenn notes, this insanity won’t end until universities suffer legal and financial severe pain for it.
It appears UTulsa is a private university, so I presume Susan Barrett (noted for her chain smoking, odorous smell, whenever she arrives late to teach class) is a privately paid individual. I’m not sure complaints about her are protected free speech, as they are not a redress to a government official. However, I think there is good material for a lawsuit for taking a guy’s money and then failing to deliver a paid product or meeting any other terms of the defined contract.
Alas, I’m told that by zealots of climate change that I’m a layman, so what do I know about legalities of free speech?