Bill Scott wrote:
I might be ignorant, but I don't understand how one gets the authority to
impose "fines" in the first place.
A private instution can decree pretty well whatever rules it wants. If you don't follow them, you're no longer a member of the institution (to a first approximation).
Recently, my college decided to fine $50 from anyone who smokes
within 30 feet of the door of a college building. Where do they get the
right to demand money from students who break the rules?
Check out the distinciotn between "positive" and "negative" liberty. Under "positive" liberty (which the US is generally understoof to endorse) one has the right to do anything that isn't specifically proscribed. Isaiah Berlin wrote a famous essay about it decade ago. I think you'll find it in the "Berlin Reader."
There is no explicit contract signed by students saying that they will submit to this.
I bet you're wrong about this. I bet students do sign something saying that they will obey the rules of the university (or there is a clause somewhere that, e.g., by accepting the offer of admission they are also declaring that they will obey the rules of the school).
(And by the way, I really wish psychologists would stop debasing the term "ethics" by applying it to utterly trivial things like buying donuts.)
Regards, -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] phone: 416-736-5115 ext. 66164 fax: 416-736-5814 http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ ============================ .
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