User blog comment:ChishioKunrin/Q&A questions for the December 19th livestream/@comment-9464517-20151216134626/@comment-24891101-20151216164332

As to Brussel sprouts, it is the translation convention. None of them are even speaking English, or have names from Earth langauges. All of it is simply translated to the closest equivalent to our experience.

As to the other Velvet thing, it's plain that she simply saw a class she wanted to take last year which conflicted, and so decided to take the class later. It's a university. If you look closely, it seems that other members of RWBY/JNPR have the same idea, since they're not all there either.

Ironwood has to know. But it's a major incident, and so he's keeping the investigation as close to the chest as possible.

As to consequences, why should they? They're college kids, and aren't bound to campus. While on Earth college students stay out all night partying and getting drunk (or so the meme goes), on Remnant, plainly they fight mechs. Also consider the responsibility culture.