Just when you thought higher education couldn’t possibly get any more bizarre, you come across a story like this one.

Jake New writes at Inside Higher Education:

Suspended for Spouse’s Statements?

The University of Tulsa has suspended a student over offensive Facebook posts that were written by his husband.

George “Trey” Barnett was banned from campus last semester until 2016 over the posts, which criticize two faculty members and insult a fellow student. If he returns to campus after his suspension, according to the university’s final decision in the case, he will not be permitted to complete his theater degree, nor will he be allowed to transfer theater credits from another university to Tulsa. He was 16 credit hours short when he was suspended.

None of the Facebook posts came from Barnett’s account, according to a faculty member’s formal complaint against him. Instead, they were posted by the account used by Christopher Mangum, then Barnett’s fiancé, who tagged Barnett in the statements. The posts referred to the professors as unprofessional, immoral and unqualified, and to the student as “morbidly obese.” Mangum, who is not a student, later submitted two sworn affidavits to the university saying he was solely responsible for the posts.

The university disagreed, saying Barnett was using “the ‘Chris did it’ defense to avoid consequences.” In its decision, the university said that after Barnett was told to remove the posts from his Facebook page, he was then responsible for them. The first of the statements — posted in April — stayed on his page for five months, but all three were deleted by October.

“Mr. Barnett became responsible for taking reasonable steps to prevent further attacks against the University of Tulsa faculty and students on his Facebook page,” the decision reads, adding that the three people targeted by the posts “expressed great distress, intimidation and dread at the mere thought of working alongside” him.