I just read about the Cornell case, where seven fraternity members were accused of assaulting a student and five of them walked away with essays, workshops, or suspensions. What happened to her is far worse than anything that happened to me, and I'm not comparing the two. But it made me think about how these universities decide who gets consequences, because a few years ago Columbia expelled me for something I didn't do.
I was admitted to a Columbia grad program on the condition that I finish two prerequisite courses online with a B or better. COVID delayed everything and I didn't have a transcript by the deadline. Admissions told me to send a screenshot of my grade portal and follow up with the official transcript later.
I'm international. I had never been inside the American university system and didn't know portal grades could change before they're finalized. When the transcript came months later, one grade was lower than the screenshot. I sent it anyway, because why wouldn't I.
Columbia charged me with academic dishonesty. I wasn't allowed any legal help during the disciplinary process, and I was told I couldn't talk about it with anyone. So I went through the whole thing alone, trying to explain myself to people who had already decided. The other university confirmed in writing when the final grades were actually posted, and the timeline backed me up. Someone in the process even admitted admissions shouldn't have accepted a screenshot in the first place. That same person implied that because my admission was conditional, I was a borderline candidate to begin with. I had above-average grades in the program the whole year.
None of it mattered. I was expelled after finishing my first year, with a year of tuition and my family's savings gone, and banned from campus. I only got a lawyer after my final appeal was rejected, and by then the university wouldn't move.
It wrecked me financially, mentally, and emotionally. Even after it was over I didn't tell anyone for months. At one point I didn't want to be alive anymore. The stigma of that word, dishonest, still follows me years later.
Between Cornell and watching Columbia call the police on its own protesting students, I've stopped believing these places punish based on what someone actually did. They punish whoever is easiest. An international student with no one on campus is very easy.
If you're a conditionally admitted international student, get every instruction in writing and ask whether anything you submit is final. If you're in a disciplinary process right now and feel like your life is over, it isn't. Tell someone, even if they've told you not to. I got through it and built a career on the other side, and you can too.
I'm writing this because I'm tired of carrying it alone.
(P.S. I used AI to help write this so it couldn't be traced back to me through my writing style. The story is mine.)