Two dozen Melbourne University college students kicked out for breaking social distancing rules

FIRST with Neil Mitchell

Two dozen students at the University of Melbourne have been ordered off campus for breaching social distancing rules.

Trinity College, a residential college at the university, yesterday asked 24 students to leave campus following an unauthorised gathering in a common room on May 25, which breached government and College-mandated physical distancing rules.

In a statement, Trinity College said students had been told the rules were “a condition of living on campus”, and had been warned that if they broke those rules they would be asked to leave.

In the statement, the college acknowledged many students may not have alternative accommodation available.

“Many of our current students in residence are from overseas or remote Indigenous communities with nowhere else to go,” Trinity College Warden, Professor Ken Hinchcliff, said.

Press PLAY below for more.

Stephanie told 3AW’s Neil Mitchell her granddaughter was one of those kicked out of the college.

“She rang my daughter yesterday to say ‘we’ve been kicked out of Trinity, we’ve been given a couple of hours notice’,” she said.

“Some of her friends, one has been put on an early morning flight to South Australia.

“These children are supposed to be studying and having exams in a few weeks!”

The students who have been asked to leave will be allowed back at Trinity College for semester two, which begins in late July.

Students who chose to remain at the residential college during the COVID-19 shutdown were not permitted to leave the campus, except for to receive medical care, from March 25 to May 13, in a bid to reduce the risk of coronavirus being introduced to the college.

Trinity College began accepting students back to campus last week under the conditions that they have a negative coronavirus test and that they adhere to strict social distancing rules.

Press PLAY below for more from Stephanie, the grandmother of one of the students kicked out.

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