Rustication is a term used at Oxford, Cambridge and Durham Universities to mean being "sent down" or expelled temporarily, or, in more recent times, to leave temporarily for welfare or health reasons. The term derives from the Latin word rus, countryside, to indicate that a student has been sent back to his or her family in the country, or from medieval Latin rustici, meaning "heathens or barbarians". Depending on the conditions given, a student who has been rusticated may not be allowed to enter any of the university buildings, or even travel to within a certain distance of them. The related term bannimus implies a permanent, publicly announced expulsion. The term is still used in British public schools, and was used in the United States during the 19th century, although it has been superseded by the term "suspension".
Walter Savage Landor, rusticated from Trinity College, Oxford in 1794. Landor had 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, rusticated from University College, Oxford in 1811 for writing "The Necessity of Atheism" and then disseminating the pamphlet to the heads of all colleges at the University. Shelley had originally been sent down, 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, rusticated from Trinity College, Oxford in 1842 for challenging a fellow student to a duel, the latter having mocked the shape of Burton's moustache.
Mark Boxer, rusticated in the 1950s from King's College, Cambridge, as editor of Granta, the student magazine, when it published a poem deemed by the authorities to be blasphemous.
Use in the United States
The term was widely used in the United States in the 19th century, and on occasion, later. Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner, in , have a character explain the term: In a story in the August 1858 Atlantic Monthly, a character reminisces: Kevin Starr writes of Richard Henry Dana, Jr. that: A biographer refers to one of James Russell Lowell's college letters as "written while he was at Concord because rusticated". In a 1932 letter to Time, publisher William Randolph Hearst denied he had been expelled from Harvard College, but had instead been "rusticated in for an excess of political enthusiasm" and had simply never returned. The term is still used occasionally in the United States. For example:
At Rice University, rustication is a punishment separate from suspension. Students who have been rusticated are banned from social activities on campus and are only allowed on campus to attend class.
