quote:

A Brazilian university has publicly expelled a woman who was heckled by hundreds of fellow students for wearing a short, pink skirt to class, taking out newspaper ads today to publicly accuse her of immorality. The private Bandeirante University in São Bernardo do Campo, outside of São Paulo, said 20-year-old Geisy Arruda disrespected "ethical principles and academic dignity and morality". Arruda made headlines last month when she had to be escorted away by police after she tried to go to class wearing the mini-dress. She put on a professor's white coat and left amid a hail of insults and curses. Video footage of the incident, which occurred last month, was posted on YouTube and picked up by Brazilian networks. It shows her being heckled by hundreds of other students. Arruda has since appeared frequently on television, saying she is struggling to return to normal life after being humiliated. Bandeirante University published advertisements accusing Arruda of attending class with "inadequate clothing" and having a provocative attitude that was "incompatible with the university environment." In the ad, titled "Educational Responsibility," the college said it had warned Arruda to change her behaviour and decided to expel her after talking to students, staff and Arruda herself. It accused her of posing for pictures and provoking other students. Arruda told Folha Online that she was appalled. "I was the victim," she said. "How can I be expelled? It's absurd." Arruda said she learned of her expulsion through the news media and had not received official notification. She said university officials told her last week she would be allowed to return to classes with the protection of a security guard.

[Source]

I was stunned to see this among the top stories on the Guardian this morning, and thought I'd share it with you, offering some extra cultural background.

There are two kinds of universities in Brazil: quite a few state universities (such as the University of Brasiia, where I study and teach), and hundreds of private universities (UniBan being a minor university I had never even heard of). As a rule of thumb, one can say that private universities produce practical workers, whereas state universities (and a few elite private institutions) are the safe haven of idealist thinkers. That being said, students in private institutions are often more conservative than those attending state universities.

Given this scenario, I'm not exactly surprised to find out this happened in a small university no one really cares about. Those are usually students that either can't dedicate themselves 100% to their books because they come from poor families and need to work part-time (and often even full-time, attending college at night) and/or they're rich brats that are being dragged to higher education by the strong social pressure. Try to imagine an ultra-Republican Paris Hilton: that's the kind of person you find in the latter group.

As you can imagine, this is exactly the kind of mentality you need to get this...



.... I'm sure you can understand the context, even if you can't understand the language (if you need help, there's also an article by the NYT on this, and I believe CBS may have broadcast something).

Needless to say, the Ministry of Education is not at all pleased, and students from state universities are organising protests.

If you ever read about this, you now know what it is all about

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