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ow I know why I should take pride in Gadjah Mada University (UGM), where I obtained my bachelor'€™s degree quite a long time ago.

It'€™s not at all because of the roll of honor of alumni from the country'€™s oldest state university, which include president-elect Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo, Vice President Boediono, former People'€™s Consultative Assembly speaker Amien Rais, former House of Representatives speaker Akbar Tandjung and the many others who have played major roles in the country. Neither does its entry onto the QS list of the best 200 universities in the world list in 2013 give me a reason to exalt UGM.

It'€™s the lesson in humanity the university has taught that so impresses me. Particularly in the case of its graduate law student Florence Sihombing, who last week sparked uproar in the city dubbed the center of Javanese culture after her social-media insult of the city went viral.

The 26-year-old girl wrote on her Path social media account of her discontent with Yogyakarta after her attempt to cut a line of motorists at a gas station was denied. She has indeed received punishment outburst as evident in the persistent bullying of her in the cyber media and eventually the police'€™s move to arrest her after a number of community groups filed a report against her for the alleged insult, irrespective of her repeated displays of remorse.

Despite living in a punitive society like Indonesia, where a wrongdoer is always wrong for the rest of his or her life, UGM dared to break the common norm. Whereas the general public in Yogyakarta vented its anger toward Florence, who is a migrant to the city, the university showed compassion and offered her solace.

'€œWe are your parents. You will have to face a hearing at the council of ethics. Just follow the procedures for the sake of your future. Will you accept our assistance?'€ Paripurna Sugarda, the university'€™s School of Law dean, told Florence after successfully persuading the police to release her.

If Florence is a Christian she may recall the story of the prodigal son, who lavishly blew his inheritance on partying and prostitutes but who retained the love of his father, who forgave him and welcomed him back.

Indeed the university'€™s leaders have acted like a good father who would not abandon his '€œprodigal daughter'€. In a show of taking responsibility for the good and bad of their students, Paripurna and the university'€™s Rector Pratikno negotiated Florence'€™s release from detention. They must have been aware of how Florence could endure the fear of living under the same roof as with (male) criminals and, more importantly, how the criminal investigation would put an end to her studies and, hence, her dreams.

What else can we say about the university'€™s courage to apologize to the public for an offense committed by one of its students, except for its sense of accountability? Other institutions might simply have blamed an offender, punished and alienated him so as not to spoil their own good image.

In some cases, universities have opted to wash their hands of the legal problems faced by their students for crimes they have perpetrated, with the excuse that the violations of the law took place outside their campuses and therefore were beyond their responsibility.

The incident involving Florence occurred about 5 kilometers from her campus in the northern part of Yogyakarta city. Her offending words had nothing to do with her status as a graduate law student of a prestigious university (she was indeed surprised that her identity as a student was made public).

But that'€™s what an educational institution like UGM is for. Education is not about blaming, punishing or stigmatizing, but, as in the case of Florence, about forgiving and giving a chance to make amends for past mistakes.

That'€™s why UGM, according to Paripurna, is trying to resolve the case outside the criminal justice system simply because Florence committed a violation of ethics. She did insult Yogyakarta and its people, but her act was far from sowing hatred of the city. In fact hardly any adverse impact of Florence'€™s defamation has been noticed. Tourists, both domestic and foreign, have continued to stream into the sultanate city.

Law enforcers overreacted to the trivial incident, whereas, according to Yogyakarta rights groups, the authorities have failed to act quickly and firmly against those committing serious violations like religious intolerance.

It must have been the initiative of UGM to protect its student from the criminalization of her self-expression that finally prompted Yogyakarta Palace to break its silence. On Wednesday Queen Hemas said she would ask the community groups that filed a police report against Florence to make peace with her and drop their charges.

UGM eventually declared Florence guilty of a '€œmoderate'€ ethics violation for her offensive comments and will issue a recommendation to the School of Law dean of measures to be taken against her, pending a meeting between Hemas and the community groups scheduled for Thursday.

Whatever the recommendation will be, UGM has lived up to its billing as an educational institution. I believe that as an alumnus of UGM, Jokowi cannot but agree totally with that conclusion and hopefully will help spread the benign UGM virus.