As Nick, Connor and I sprinted to the gangway, we heard Cynthia, the Dean of Students, calling down to us that we did not need to run. Her tone was pleasant, so I figured we weren’t in bad shape. I was wrong. When we climbed up the gangway, Cynthia said to us, verbatim, “you are in so much trouble I can’t even tell you.”
We were told to leave our stuff at the gangway and go down to the conference room on deck 2. The room had a long table, chairs, a whiteboard, and bathroom without soap, towels, or toilet paper. Since we each had to go to the bathroom that was problematic. I decided to relieve myself on the number 1 front, but number two was in it for the long haul.
After about 45 minutes of waiting, Lauren, the Assistant Dean of Students, came to talk with us. Lauren was the only administrator who, in my opinion, treated us fairly throughout this process. When she sat down with us she listened, fully allowing us to tell our side of the story, only stopping us to ask questions or for further explanations when necessary. She seemed more apologetic and sad than anything else, asking how we got to be late, why we decided to go to the game, etc. Once she heard us out she thanked us and left.
We waiting around for another hour before Cynthia returned with all of the ship’s LLC’s (Living Learning Coordinators, basically the employed RA’s who also ran various ship life programs). Here are some of my favorite quotes from Cynthia, please keep in mind that she has yet to ask us anything about what has happened. “I’m so mad at you guys I can’t even tell you.” “We haven’t decided upon a punishment yet but right now we’re thinking expulsion.” “You won’t be having any more fun, at all, for the duration of the voyage.”
After chewing us out for 10 or 15 minutes, she told us about the new living situations we’d have while they decided upon our final punishment. We were all being placed in solitary confinement (we each got our own, separate rooms), and we’d have 10 minutes to pack ourselves a backpack. We could only leave our room to go to class or for meals. Meals had to be eaten at one of four specific tables and could last a maximum of a half hour.
This is apparently standard solitary confinement procedure on the MV Explorer. My real contention with the treatment lies with the fact that, aside from Nick, Connor, and I, the only other SAS student who was subject to solitary confinement was a kid who smuggled and consumed heroin onboard. Even the other kids kicked off the boat for drug use did not have to live out their last days in solitary.
Once the meeting ended I packed up a backpack of clothes, toiletries, and my laptop, and moved in to the new room. It was actually fairly spacious and had its own bathroom, which was nice. It also had a phone, so I got Nick and Connor’s room numbers, and also jotted down the digits of a few other friends.
That was the good part of the room. The bad part was the fact it had no windows, and that I was required to spend ALL FUCKING DAY IN THERE. Even prisoners get an hour to exercise outside. Just sayin’.
Because I had a meeting the following day with Cynthia and Laurence, who is the Executive Dean, I stayed up late reading the Voyager’s Handbook. There were a few main points I wanted to touch upon. First, our punishment was unprecedented for late arrivals; everyone else had received dock time (being forced to stay on the ship while in port), if they had been punished at all. Second, the only student who had been forced to stay in solitary confinement had, like I already mentioned, smuggled and consumed heroin in the ship. Finally, the handbook reserved first-offense expulsions for “serious offenses” such as sexual assault and drug use.
I went to bed around 3:00 in the morning, confident I’d have everything sorted out after the following day’s meeting.
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