The university is bringing itself into disrepute by punishing a student who's actually motivated to create something.

Not to mention the fact that they're trying to regulate legal and socially acceptable conduct by students outside the university.

Not exactly the way for a university to encourage a local "Silicon Valley" to develop around it.

Good point on that. It's like applying controls on children in high school to college students.

It really wouldn't matter if it was high school. If it's not created or hosted at school, the school has no justification for doing anything to the creator.

I'm not sure if you're speaking philosophically, but there's plenty of precedent for high schools in the U.S. punishing students for off-campus behavior, and sundry justifications that seem to be accepted for doing so.

I'm saying that's generally unacceptable. I can think of a few exceptions, such as online bullying where the off-campus behavior directly produces on-campus behavior, but the school's jurisdiction should generally be limited to the campus and school-sponsored activities.

[in loco parentis]

Sarcastic memo:

Seems like there could be some good money to be made fining final year students for whatever little offenses we can think of. What are they going to do, forfeit their degree over a few hundred (or thousand) dollars?

This will have to do until we can find a way to retroactively cancel their degrees at any time in their ensuing professional lives because they do something that as a graduate of this university might cast it into a bad light. (Or just when money gets tight).

They might call your bluff. Graduation rate is a sizable component of the all-important U.S. News ranking. Given the acrobatics top-tier colleges perform to ensure each student leaves with a diploma, I wouldn't be surprised if an unfinished degree is as costly to the school as it us to the student.

£300 to get articles written about his site? Sounds like the best marketing ROI he could have hoped for.

But the site had to be taken down. £300 to get articles written about a site that once existed.

He has plans to put it back up as soon as he has his degree. I'm sure the petition asking for it to come back doesn't hurt either.

Probably not a huge deal - he's finished his final exam so will presumably graduate in the next few weeks. And since the summer vacation (=fewer students on campus) is approaching I guess he'd see a drop in traffic anyway.

In fact this could be the start of his marketing campaign for next intake of students...

Oh, didn't catch that part.

It still might be worth it from the perspective of getting jobs after college. "Oh! You're the FitFinder guy? I've heard of that. I heard that was super-popular before you got shut down."

Now if that's not extortion, I don't know what is.

Is it actually legal for the university to do this?

Of course. He's not legally obligated to pay the fine, but they don't have to give him his degree.

If I walk into a store, buy something, and am then "fined" $300 and told I can't leave with the item I just bought unless I pay the fine... someone's going to be sued, and it's not going to be me. Of course, colleges won't admit that they are a degree store, but...

Difference is, as the parent post said, they don't have to give you a degree. There are all sorts of strings attached to that. You pay for the possibility of a degree; they are not obliged to hand them out.

As an aside, I'm not sure this would be governed by contract law. In .au, this sort of thing has been the subject of administrative law cases...

Wait a minute. This sounds like they can deny you a degree, based on facts that (1) have nothing to do with your abilities, and (2) have nothing to do with the university at all. We have a word for that: "discrimination".

Under which wicked jurisdiction discrimination could ever be considered legal?

If you have done all the work and gotten all the grades necessary for a degree, as stipulated by the university, then they probably can't deny you one. However they can deny you those necessary grades if they haven't been awarded yet.

Of course they can. But on what grounds, if you eventually ace your exams, and do nothing wrong within the university?

I'm in high school, but surely you sign some sort of document giving the college the right to do that?

Such a clause would have to be very broad, like "don't do anything that might embarrass the university". That would probably be considered abusive, and void.

They probably don't have the right, and count on your inability to effectively sue them.

His site is worth so much more than his degree, IMO.

I guess this is the I-am-pot-committed-so-i-have-to-go-through-with-it effect. It's hard to make decisions based on future returns as suppose to past efforts.

He's a few weeks away from getting his degree, I think he's probably made the right call here - Take site down. Get degree. Put site back up.

Which do you think grabs more attention in a resume:

- Graduated from xxx University with Honor in computer science

OR

- My site was so engaging to students that my university had to threaten to retract my degree three months prior to my graduation in order to force me to shutdown my site.

This is the kind of PR Bill Gates get by dropping out of college. If I was him, I'd keep the site running, let the university take my degree, then take them to the court (knowing that I won't win), just to create more media attention.

"A few weeks away from getting his degree" is exactly the kind of thinking that I'm trying to avoid. But of course, who knows what I would actually do when I'm in his shoes.

Their petition on their website: http://www.thefitfinder.co.uk/witnessthefitness/

Shades of 'FaceMash'?

Invest in this kid's next project -- especially if he drops out to do it.

he should drop out of school and use it as an excuse to get on every tv station and written about in every paper in the country.

who wants a degree from such a dumb school anyway. walk away. some of the best companies of our time have been built by drop-outs.

Does he really need a degree given the success claimed in the article ?

Thought experiment: If he doesn't think he needs the degree, why is he there?

Peer pressure?

I am really interested to know how this brings disrepute to the school. Is it a so school known for churning out world class theoretical computer scientists, that those building dating websites degrade its reputation?