Soton confirms Chamberlain freshers not involved in gathering won’t be disciplined

Soton Uni and SUSU have confirmed Chamberlain freshers not involved in the large gathering will not have it “retained” on their student record, after being told they were all “held equally responsible” for it.

On Monday, a number of students at Chamberlain Halls were found in severe breach of social distancing guidelines.

This resulted in all Chamberlain students being emailled a “warning letter”. The letter said: “Even if you were not in attendance at the gathering last night, failure to report the incident means all residents of Chamberlain Hall will be held equally responsible,” and said a copy would be retained for all residents on the central Student Disciplinary record system.

This resulted in uproar as many students were unaware of the gathering and were being blamed for the mistakes of others.

One fresher told The Soton Tab that they “got told off for not snitching, even if we had no part in it”. “They never said we had to report breaches to anyone, the information we’ve been given is just telling us to follow government guidelines”.

It has been confirmed today through Olivia Reed the SUSU President, and the university itself that students who weren’t involved won’t have the warning placed on their student record.

The university told The Soton Tab that they are “following up with those students who have been identified as being part of the incident” and that should students be “found to be falling short of the standards we expect from them in future, we will begin disciplinary procedures.”

Olivia Reed echoed this statement, saying that “following our discussions with the University, we have now been assured that students not responsible for the breach of the guidelines will not have any record retained on their file and that the University has begun contacting students accordingly.”

She added that SUSU will “continue to work with the University to ensure that this does not happen again and would encourage any students who have concerns to contact the Sabbatical Officers.”

The University’s full statement to The Soton Tab was:

“All our students are required to follow the latest Government laws and guidelines relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and we have a Code of Conduct that further reinforces their responsibilities to protect each other and the wider community. Following a large social gathering at one of our halls of residence, which was dispersed by our security team, we have written to students to remind them of this.

“After further investigation we wrote to students with an update on 30 September to assure them that the warning letter will not be held on their record if they were not involved. We are also following up with those students who have been identified as being part of the incident.

“If any students are found to be falling short of the standards we expect from them in the future, we will begin disciplinary procedures.”

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