Use in the United Kingdom

Rustication (temporary expulsion) is a term used at some British academic institutions for a disciplinary action. The term derives from the Latin word rus, countryside, to indicate that a student has been sent back to his family in the country^[1] and is also traditionally used at Oxford and Cambridge universities. It is also commonly employed in many British public schools. The term was also used in the United States during the 1800s, but has been superseded by the term "suspension."

A student who has been rusticated may not enter any of the school/university buildings or facilities, or even travel to within a certain distance of them. To be rusticated is not the same as being "sent down" (Expulsion) .

Notable Britons who were rusticated during their time at University include:

• John Milton (1609-1674), Rusticated from Christ's College, Cambridge in 1626 for quarreling with his tutor.[1]

• John Dryden (1631-1700), Rusticated from Trinity College, Cambridge [2] Exchanged insults with his college vice-master.

• Walter Savage Landor (1775-1864), Rusticated from Trinity College, Oxford in 1794 [3]. 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

• Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), Rusticated from University College, Oxford in 1811 for having written "The Necessity of Atheism" and then having published and disseminated the pamphlet to the heads of all 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.

• Richard Francis Burton (1821-1890), Rusticated from Trinity College, Oxford in 1842 for having challenged another student to a duel after the latter mocked his moustache, and for having, on top of which, attended a Steeplechase in contravention of the rules of the time.

• Algernon Swinburne (1837-1909), Rusticated from Balliol College, Oxford in 1859 [4] for having publicly supported the attempted assassination of Napoleon III by Orsini

• Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Rusticated from Magdalen College, Oxford after having returned to his college some three weeks after a new term had begun. [5]

• 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.

Use in the United States

The term also was used in the United States in the 19th century. Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, in The Gilded Age, have a character explain the term:

"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." [6]

In a story in the August 1858 Atlantic Monthly [7], a character reminisces:

"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."

Kevin Starr [8] writes of Richard Henry Dana that:

"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 under a kindly clerical tutor."

A biographer [9] refers to one of James Russell Lowell's college letters as "written while he was at Concord because rusticated."

Notes

1. ^ Definition of 'Rustication', English test, Accessed 2007-05-21

References

• 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