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> Just another reason not to invest time and money into it.

No it’s not. Not unless you plan on taking over campus buildings and vandalizing them, I guess.

The degree isn’t some unrevocable item that you own. It’s an endorsement from the university. There are contractual agreements involved and it doesn’t take much imagination to think of how taking over a campus building and vandalizing it (while encouraging current students to join you) is grounds for them to cancel the degree.



> The degree isn’t some unrevocable item that you own.

This is what I find so surprising. Having contractual stipulations I would need to abide by AFTER getting my degree for fear of revocation is nonsense to me, gross even. I don’t care if you’re the Unabomber. It’s silly for a university to be policing that. I guess I’m naive.

To be clear, so there’s no temptation to move the goal posts, I’m talking about a degree “already earned and received”.


> Having contractual stipulations I would need to abide by AFTER getting my degree for fear of revocation is nonsense to me

The conduct in question happened pre-degree even if the punishment was after. I think that is a pretty important distinction.

most contracts cover conduct during the contract even if it only comes to light after the end of the contract, so that wouldn't be so unusual.


Sure I hear you. I agree that this distinction matters.

What annoys me is that revocation is even an option at all. I think this scenario is such an edge case that it really doesn't need an exception, and if supporting it means having the power to revoke a degree, then in my mind it's a lever for abuse and not something we'd want to normalize. It seems, to me at least, like a petty abuse of power that they shouldn't even have.


Eh, I attended a conservative Christian college and there was a pretty strict religious code of conduct students were required to abide by. I would find it pretty disturbing for the school to retroactively rescind my engineering degree due to my having drunk underage or being an atheist.

You can come up with whatever justification you want, but this action is unprecedented and clearly a politically motivated punishment.


My high school wouldn't let you graduate if you had unpaid library fines, i can't imagine what they would do if you caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage. I agree rescinding post-granting degree is weird but we are still talking about behaviour that happened while they were students and that happened relatively recently (such that disciplinary procedures could have realistically started while they were still students).

It is unusual, but the situation is unusual. I think calling it unprecedented is a bit much. Its plausible it could be politically motivated, but it seems equally plausible that the school is pissed that they now have to find thousands in the budget to repair the damage done. Causing tens of thousands of dollars in damages is a plausible reason for the school to be mad.


Ekrem İmamoğlu, the man whose degree was taken away, is 55 and got his degree in the early 90s. What is "recent" about that?


I was replying to someone comparing the article to pro-palestine protestors from columbia who had their degree removed.

I agree 100% that people like Ekrem İmamoğlu is a totally different situation. That was the thing i was trying to argue.


I think you're claiming the Ekrem İmamoğlu case is completely different, I don't think that's what anyone else is saying.

In any case Columbia had ample time to address it's students before granting them diplomas - no facts have changed between them and now, nor have any new facts been made public. It's only turning heel because of political pressure by the President of the United States.




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