My Brother Got Shipped From PCC
My brother Andy got "shipped" from Pensacola Christian College. This is the term PCC students use for expulsion. Before I knew the details, I expected he just accumulated too many demerits for tiny infractions. I certainly accumulated a lot of them when I was there. For instance, having a clean room and your bed made when the floor-leader comes in to check in the morning. (The floor leader is a student whose job is to supervise the students on his or her hall.) I typically would get 5 demerits for not emptying my trash during morning check; another five for hair too long when they lined us up against the wall once a month for the dorm supervisor to inspect us; another five for being late to a class; another five for being caught out of bed or with a light on after 11 PM. More rules are listed here and here, but there are countless unwritten ones.
There are stages to the penalties. For 75 demerits in a semester, you get "campused." It means you can't leave campus for two weeks, and you're not allowed to speak to any other campused student during that period.
If you get 150 demerits in a semester, you are "shadowed", which means a floor leader is assigned to follow you everywhere and make sure you don't speak to any student, while they go through the process of expelling you. The term "shipped" is used for being expelled. Shipped students sometimes report gestapo-like intimidation tactics pressuring them into signing a lot of damaging paperwork without consulting a lawyer. A shipped student is abruptly dumped on the next flight home with a suitcase, and the rest of their belongings are literally shipped after them. Expelled students always have to sit out the rest of the semester and the one following, but after that, re-applications are considered on a case-by-case basis.
He got shipped for the dumbest thing. This requires some setup to explain. There is a men's sports field and a women's sports field. But the thing is, the men's sports field is on the other side of a little 2-lane road, Rawson Lane. My brother's friend Jeremy was playing sports on the Men's field and his girlfriend wanted to watch the game. Andy drove her there in his car. The road goes through school property but is defined as not on campus. When they drove across the road, they were for a moment "off campus" before they got back "on campus" on the other side of the road. Women are not supposed to go to the Men's Field at all except during a chaperoned sports event (and not all are chaperoned). Being with a student of the opposite sex off campus is always automatic expulsion.
That site is nearby where Rachel and I got "socialed" for talking on her way to work past my dorm when we were students there; but we were inside the fence, so we weren't expelled. Security caught us on the surveillance cameras. Speaking to a member of the opposite sex in an area without a chaperone results in being "socialed": we were not allowed to speak to any students of the opposite sex for two weeks.
Since you all share my opinion that my alma mater Pensacola Christian College (home of the famous "making eye babies" and "optical intercourse") is creepy and demented, I'm sure it will come as no surprise to you that I'm glad my brother is out of there, hopefully this time forever. He might be upset at the loss of all the money he's given the college, but it was wasted money for an unaccredited pre-med degree. I'll encourage him to apply to Macomb Community College or Oakland University.