Universities are supposed to be centres of thought that provide intellectual stimulation for students being prepared for entry into the society.

Universities, too, are expected to engage in shaping attitudes and human character, not merely providing avenues for the attainment of tertiary qualifications.

We assume, therefore, that university students, being among the more educated in the society, are able to separate fact from allegation and, as such, have due regard for the law.
All that, however, does not seem to apply to the bunch of University of the West Indies (UWI) students who, on Tuesday evening, mobbed a man on the institution's Mona campus after he was accused of making sexual advances on a male student.

As has been reported, the accused man allegedly propositioned a male student inside one of the institution's bathrooms. The student drew attention to the man's alleged action and other students, including women, chased and beat the man before he was rescued, first by the campus security and later the police.

We find it amazing that not one of those supposedly highly educated students tried to stop the injury being inflicted on a fellow human being on the basis of an allegation.
Not one of those supposedly highly educated students sought to question the complainant to determine whether he knew the man he had accused and whether his allegation was driven by an ulterior motive.

Those supposedly highly educated students who formed that mob that not only beat that accused man but pelted him with garbage, and, in the process, injured three cops, are the same people who, in a few years, will likely become Jamaica's decision makers. our leaders. our corporate executives.

We take some comfort in the fact that the president of the UWI Guild of Students, Mr Dayton Campbell, has condemned the action of this rabble. For it is very easy to sully a man's image in Jamaica, and, probably, cause him great harm, by labelling him a homosexual, given the society's intolerance for that unconventional lifestyle.

While we are in no position to determine the veracity of the complainant's accusation, Tuesday evening's incident at the UWI is, we believe, an indication of how easy it is to use rumour to whip people into a mad frenzy. And it is frightening that people who should at least have some level of formal education can be so led.

They should be ashamed of their boorish behaviour and should ask themselves how they would feel if they were so accused and assaulted without being given an opportunity to defend themselves.

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