View source for Rustication (academia)

{{Short description|Time away from school as punishment}}
{{other uses of|Rustication}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
'''Rustication''' is a term used at [[Oxford University|Oxford]], [[Cambridge University|Cambridge]] and [[Durham University|Durham]]<ref>{{cite news|title=General Regulation IV - Discipline|url=http://www.dur.ac.uk/university.calendar/volumei/general_regulations/discipline/|publisher=[[Durham University]]|accessdate=2014-03-03}}</ref> Universities to mean being [[Suspension (punishment)|suspended]] or [[Expulsion (academia)|expelled]] temporarily, or, in more recent times, to leave temporarily for welfare or health reasons.{{Citation needed|date=April 2016}} The term derives from the Latin word ''rus'', countryside, to indicate that a student has been sent back to his or her family in the country,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.english-test.net/gre/vocabulary/words/080/gre-definitions.php |title=Definition of rusticate, parry, amplify, mutter |publisher=English-test.net |date= |accessdate=2014-03-03 |archive-date=27 September 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050927132945/http://www.english-test.net/gre/vocabulary/words/080/gre-definitions.php |url-status=dead }}</ref> or from medieval Latin ''rustici'', meaning "heathens or barbarians" (''missus in rusticōs'', "sent among ..."). Depending on the conditions given, a student who has been rusticated may not be allowed to enter any of the university buildings, or even travel to within a certain distance of them. The related term ''[[bannimus]]'' implies a permanent, publicly announced expulsion, at least in Oxford.<ref>{{Cyclopaedia 1728|inline=1|title=Bannimus|url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/HistSciTech/HistSciTech-idx?type=turn&id=HistSciTech.Cyclopaedia01&entity=HistSciTech.Cyclopaedia01.p0230&q1=Bannimus|page=80}}</ref>

The term is still used in British [[Public school (UK)|public schools]] (i.e., private schools), and was used in the United States during the 19th century, although it has been superseded by the term "[[Suspension (punishment)|suspension]]".{{citation needed|date=March 2020}}

==Use in the United Kingdom==
Notable Britons who were rusticated during their time at University have included:
* [[John Lyly]] (c. 1553–1606), author of ''[[Euphues]]''. Rusticated from [[Magdalen College, Oxford]],  for unknown reasons.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}}
* [[John Milton]] (1609–1674), rusticated from [[Christ's College, Cambridge]], in 1626 for quarreling with his tutor.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ma-Mo/Milton-John.html |title=John Milton Biography - life, family, children, story, death, history, wife, school, young, son, information, born |publisher=Notablebiographies.com |date= |accessdate=2014-01-07}}</ref>
* [[John Dryden]] (1631–1700), rusticated from [[Trinity College, Cambridge]], for having exchanged insults with his college vice-master.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/1/4/8/11488/11488.txt |title=The Poetical Works of John Dryden, Volume 1 by John Dryden - Free Ebook |publisher=Gutenberg.org |date=2004-03-01 |accessdate=2014-01-07}}</ref> 
* [[Walter Savage Landor]] (1775–1864), rusticated from [[Trinity College, Oxford]], in 1794. Landor had fired a gun at the window of a fellow student whose late night revelry had disturbed him and for whom he had an aversion. Landor chose not to return.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/cntjl10.txt |title=Count Julian by Walter Savage Landor - Free Ebook |publisher=Gutenberg.org |date=2003-05-01 |accessdate=2014-01-07}}</ref>
* [[Percy Bysshe Shelley]] (1792–1822), rusticated from [[University College, Oxford]], in 1811 for writing "[[The Necessity of Atheism]]" and then disseminating the pamphlet to the heads of all [[Colleges of the University of Oxford|colleges at the University]]. Shelley had originally been [[sent down]] (permanently expelled), but upon a supplication from his father to the University was given a chance to deny authorship and return. Shelley refused to deny authorship and was therefore sent down.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}}
* [[Richard Francis Burton]] (1821–1890), rusticated from [[Trinity College, Oxford]], in 1842 for challenging a fellow student to a [[duel]], the latter having mocked the shape of Burton's moustache. {{citation needed|date=March 2020}}
* [[Algernon Charles Swinburne]] (1837–1909), rusticated from [[Balliol College, Oxford]], in 1859 for having publicly supported the attempted [[assassination]] of [[Napoleon III of France|Napoleon III]] by [[Felice Orsini|Orsini]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=617493 |title=Algernon Charles Swinburne |publisher=Everything2.com |date= |accessdate=2014-01-07}}</ref>{{unreliable source?|certain=y|reason=source cites wikipedia|date=December 2015}}
* [[Oscar Wilde]] (1854–1900), rusticated from [[Magdalen College, Oxford]], after having returned to his college some three weeks after a new term had begun.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.biographyonline.net/poets/oscar_wilde.html |title=Oscar Wilde |publisher=Biography online |date=2006-11-22 |accessdate=2014-01-07}}</ref>
* [[John Betjeman]] (1906–1984), rusticated from [[Magdalen College, Oxford]], in 1928.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}}
* [[Mark Boxer]] (1931–1988), rusticated in the 1950s from [[King's College, Cambridge]], as editor of ''[[Granta]]'', the student magazine, when it published a poem deemed by the authorities to be blasphemous.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}}
* [[Auberon Waugh]] (1939–2001), rusticated from [[Christ Church, Oxford]], in 1957.  Waugh failed to perform sufficiently well to pass his [[Philosophy, Politics and Economics]] prelim exams. Waugh chose not to return.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}}
* [[Nick Raynsford]] (b. 1945), rusticated from [[Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge]] following a [[night climbing]] incident in which he had displayed a banner against the [[Vietnam War]] between the pinnacles of [[King's College Chapel]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Whipple|first=Tom|date=10 June 2007|title=Nocturnal Missions – The Times online, 10 June 2007|location=London|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1899447.ece|access-date=10 August 2008}}</ref>

==Use in the United States==
The term was widely used in the United States in the 19th century, and on occasion, later. [[Mark Twain]] and [[Charles Dudley Warner]], in ''[[The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today|The Gilded Age]]'', have a character explain the term:

{{blockquote|"Philip used to come to Fallkill often while he was in college.  He was once rusticated here for a term."

"Rusticated?"

"Suspended for some College scrape."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/5820/5820.txt |title=The Gilded Age, Part 3. by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner - Free Ebook |publisher=Gutenberg.org |date=2004-06-20 |accessdate=2014-01-07}}</ref>}}

In a story in the August 1858 ''[[Atlantic Monthly]]'',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10626/10626-h/10626-h.htm |title=The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 02, No. 10, August, 1858 by Various - Free Ebook |publisher=Gutenberg.org |date=2004-01-01 |accessdate=2014-01-07}}</ref> a character reminisces:

{{blockquote|"It was long before you were born, my dear, that, for some college peccadilloes,—it is so long ago that I have almost forgotten now what they were,—I was suspended (rusticated we called it) for a term, and advised by the grave and dignified president to spend my time in repenting and in keeping up with my class. I had no mind to come home; I had no wish, by my presence, to keep the memory of my misdemeanors before my father's mind for six months; so I asked and gained leave to spend the summer in a little town in Western Massachusetts, where, as I said, I should have nothing to tempt me from my studies."}}<!-- retain quotation marks - a character speaking in a story -->

Kevin Starr writes of [[Richard Henry Dana Jr.]] that:<ref>[http://print.google.com/print?hl=en&id=vpMI4z-tDPMC&dq=kevin+starr+rusticated&prev=http://print.google.com/print%3Fq%3Dkevin%2Bstarr%2Brusticated&lpg=PA40&pg=PA40&sig=nUJrmz7IYYSI_dlcTzPbqbfQqLU]{{dead link|date=January 2014}}</ref>

{{blockquote|"[[Harvard University|Harvard]]'s rigid rules and narrow curriculum had proved equally repressive. Rusticated for taking part in a student rebellion, Dana had spent six months in quiet rural study in [[Andover, Massachusetts|Andover]] under a kindly clerical tutor."}}

A biographer refers to one of [[James Russell Lowell]]'s college letters as "written while he was at [[Concord, Massachusetts|Concord]] because rusticated".<ref>[http://print.google.com/print?hl=en&id=BX2yToKJx40C&dq=rusticated+college&prev=http://print.google.com/print%3Fq%3Drusticated%2Bcollege&lpg=PA82&pg=PA82&sig=Ikpr0Mt59U2fTYqDgSmuQweYQ_w]{{dead link|date=January 2014}}</ref>

In a 1932 letter to ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', the publisher [[William Randolph Hearst]] denied he had been expelled from [[Harvard College]], saying he had instead been "rusticated in [1886] for an excess of political enthusiasm" and had simply never returned.<ref name="hearst">{{cite journal |journal=[[Time Magazine]] |date=January 11, 1932 |title=Rusticated Hearst: A newspaper tycoon defends his Harvard record |url=https://ideas.time.com/letters/rusticated-hearst/?iid=op-article-notable}}</ref>

The term is still used occasionally in the United States.  For example:
<blockquote>"The penalty for plagiarism at [[Harvard Extension School|Harvard Extension]] is a failing grade in the course and rustication from the university for at least one calendar year."<ref>Harvard Extension School (2009). Course syllabus. Retrieved from http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic515075.files/121syl-09.doc.{{dead link|date=March 2014}}</ref></blockquote>

At [[Rice University]], rustication is a punishment separate from suspension. Students who have been rusticated are banned from social activities on campus and are only allowed on campus to attend class.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://students.rice.edu/students/Conduct.asp |title=Code of Conduct : Rice University |publisher=Students.rice.edu |date= |accessdate=2014-01-07}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Expulsion (education)]]
*[[Suspension (punishment)]]

==References==
{{Reflist|1}}

==Bibliography==
*[http://technology.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1261609,00.html ''Guardian'' story about being rusticated]
*Kevin Starr, 1973: ''Americans and the California Dream 1850-1915,'' Oxford University Press. 1986 reprint: {{ISBN|0-19-504233-6}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rustication (Academia)}}
[[Category:Education in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Education in the United States]]
[[Category:School punishments]]
[[Category:Terminology of the University of Cambridge]]
[[Category:Terminology of the University of Oxford]]
[[Category:Terminology of Durham University]]