Allegations of a crime are serious business, as are fake claims of a crime. The Herald-Sun reports that Quinn Matney, the Carolina freshman who lied and said he’d been attacked and branded by someone who also hurled an anti-gay slur, has gone home to Asheville to be with his family. For that I’m glad, and I hope he gets the help he needs.
That said, we still have the issue of what UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp — who had no problem accepting the allegation as true and declaring the university would report it to the federal government as a “hate crime” — will do about a student who has done this. Where is the announcement that Matney has been suspended and that his action has been rebuked? If that has taken place, I’m not aware of it. If the chancellor doesn’t make it crystal clear that faked allegations of a crime will not be tolerated and that there will be serious academic consequences, he is abdicating his responsibility as a leader.
And yes, Carolina has a student honor code. Here’s a sample from the web site:
About the Honor Code
The Honor Code is the heart of integrity at Carolina. In brief, the Honor Code says that all students shall “Refrain from lying, cheating, or stealing,” but the Honor Code means much more. It is the guiding force behind the students’ responsible exercise of freedom, the foundation of student self-governance here at UNC-Chapel Hill. The University maintains an Honor Code because we believe that all members of our community should be responsible for upholding the values that have been agreed upon by the community. A written Honor Code is an affirmation of our commitment to high standards of conduct inside and outside of the classroom.
