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Student Faces Suspension For Spamming Profs
Posted by
kdawson
on Tue Dec 09, 2008 02:33 PM
from the how-free-the-speech dept.
from the how-free-the-speech dept.
edmicman sends word of a Fox News report about a Michigan State University student who is facing suspension for bulk emailing a number of professors at the university about a proposed change to the school calendar — an e-mail that the university is labeling spam. The article contains links to a copy of the original email, the allegations against the student, and the university's Email Acceptable Use Policy. The student, Kara Spencer, asked a Philadelphia rights organization, FIRE, to get involved. The article quotes the FIRE defense program director: "The fact that MSU is considering punishment of Spencer simply for exercising her right to contact selected faculty members by e-mail shows a disturbing disregard for students' freedom of expression. ... Threatening a member of the student government with suspension for sending relevant, timely e-mails to faculty members is outrageous." Spencer is awaiting the school's judgement after a hearing, and vows to take to the courts if suspended.
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Mass mailing (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Mass mailing (Score:5, Insightful)
No that would be ineffective. Clearly the proper course of action is to contact the media so millions of uninvolved strangers can mock the university for such stupefying misapplication of policy.
Interestingly, it seems as a student government representative she was fulfilling her duties by attempting to negotiate change between students and faculty. Her email was well written, clear and concise.
I fail to see how the university can justify any reprisal.
Parent
Re:Mass mailing (Score:5, Funny)
The only job of student government in any university is to plan parties. Good for her for trying to do more.
Parent
Re:Mass mailing (Score:5, Insightful)
Civil disobedience is fine, IMO. Have at it, but don't come blubbering when Mr. Consequence arrives to the party.
I thought that was the point of civil disobedience, that you showed the world the injustice by suffering through the situation in a more public way.
Parent
That's stupid. (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm really sick of replies like this:
Civil disobedience is fine, IMO. Have at it, but don't come blubbering when Mr. Consequence arrives to the party.
This is a canned comment that tools make on any given story about someone standing up to establishment stupidity. This is the same attitude that southerners commonly took towards blacks protesting fucked up laws. Now, I'm not saying that her cause is anywhere near the same level of fighting jim crow and southern racism in general, BUT, if you look at how civil disobediance in the south(and elsewhere) actually works, you'll see that the "blubbering" about the consquences IS PART OF IT. THAT'S HOW CHANGE IS ACHIEVED AGAINST STUPID POLICIES.
You have to not only disobey stupid policies, but then you have to whine bitch and moan about the consequences it if you want them changed and if you want a just resolution. THAT'S PART OF THE PROCESS OF CIVIL DISOBEDIANCE. You don't do that last part, you end up a door mat of the system, rather than someone who forces it to change.
Parent
Re:Mass mailing (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Mass mailing (Score:5, Insightful)
The university dilemma:
-If the students can disrupt the system, then the administration has failed to do its job.
-If the students can't disrupt the system, then the professors have failed to do their jobs.
This case is nothing new. The university had a policy and had good reasons for that policy. A student broke the policy and had good reasons for breaking that policy. Student gets called for judicial review. If she can defend her actions, nothing happens. If she can't, she gets disciplined. Either way, nobody is walking away with any scars...there is no way she's getting the boot for this.
Neither party is doing anything wrong here, and the process generally works fairly well.
Parent
Re:Mass mailing (Score:5, Informative)
RTFA! It is alleged that the student violated the policy. However, reading the policy, there is a clause that specifically permits bulk emailing communications regarding changes to university policies of procedures. There is room to interpret that as permission to bulk email about the changed academic calendar.
However, it is premature to cry foul yet as there has been no ruling on the matter. For all we know, it'll be dismissed with no action at all.
Parent
Re:Mass mailing (Score:5, Insightful)
To help students and faculty agree on the properness of university policies and programs is what student government is all about.
Really? I thought it was about giving the ambitious and meddlesome a chance to hone their people-annoying skills while padding their resumes.
Parent
Re:Mass mailing (Score:5, Insightful)
I disagree with your characterization. MSU had never, until that point, enforced the policy even on actual spam and hacking activities. They enforced it the moment someone disagreed with a faculty position. One of the professors got bent out of shape by being confronted with discord from a student (the temerity!).
There's no blubbering here, just righteous defiance. Remember, she insisted that charges be brought against her.
Gotta give her credit for standing up for herself. Furthermore, it was only one professor out of some four thousand who registered a complaint. Apparently this wasn't a big problem for the faculty at all ... just for the Administration.
That Lou what's-her-name President of the school will probably end up regretting this. She wanted to make a clear statement to the students: do what we tell you, and don't try to get the faculty on your side.. Instead, they ran up against someone who wouldn't cave when threatened. Now they're going to have to put up or shut up. Not only that, but if Ms. Spencer sticks to her guns, they may end up having a Federal judge tell them where to stick their email policies.
Parent
Re:Mass mailing (Score:5, Informative)
MSU's anti-spam policy is clearly unconstitutional (see blog post at http://www.thefire.org/index.php/article/10012.html [thefire.org]).
Adam Kissel
Director, Individual Rights Defense Program
Foundation for Individual Rights in Education
Parent
Re:Mass mailing (Score:5, Insightful)
An opinion blog or forum opinion does not determine constitutionality.
<nitpick>
Not so. Anyone can determine constitutionality by examining a law, and the constitution, and telling you whether or not it violates the constitution. Now, that won't save your ass in court, but to say that the only valid judge of constitutionality is the courts is not only wrong, but against the spirit in which our nation was founded (that the people should keep the government in check).
</nitpick>
Parent
Re:Mass mailing (Score:5, Insightful)
Spam is:
Unsolicited,
Bulk,
Commercial email.
It is not solicited email of any kind, it is not personal email of any kind, and it is not non-commercial email. A local school emailing your entire neighborhood to tell them that the school is closed due to snow is annoying, but it is not spam. A teenager who emails a chain letter to your entire domain is annoying, but it is not spam.
This was (barely) bulk, and it was mostly unsolicited. It was not, however, commercial and thus it was not spam.
Parent
Re:Mass mailing (Score:5, Informative)
While UBC/UCE* is indeed spam, I'd say that the chain letter is INDEED SPAM as well.
Google's [google.com] list of definitions.
Unsolicited Email, like electronic junk mail ... ...
Unwanted, usually advertisement email. Spam are usually sent in bulk and the recipient addresses are obtained by illegal means (eg by tapping the network communication).
Spam is the term widely used for unsolicited e-mail; spam is also referred to as junk mail. Spam is usually sent indiscriminately to hundreds or even hundreds of thousands of inbox's simultaneously.
Spamming is the abuse of electronic messaging systems to indiscriminately send unsolicited bulk messages.
A collection of unsolicited bulk electronic messages; Any undesired electronic content automatically-generated for commercial purposes; (rare) An unsolicited electronic message sent in bulk, usually by email or newsgroups; Alternative form of SPAM; : To send spam (i.e. unsolicited electronic
An obnoxious practice of mass advertising to clients through e-mail, IRC, a browser, or any other communication device.
Basically, UBC is SPAM, but SPAM isn't necessarily UBC.
*Unsolicited Commercial Email
Parent
Re:Mass mailing (Score:5, Insightful)
no, while most spam is commercial, it doesn't have to be. i.e. "commercial" is NOT one of the defining attributes of spam. "unsolicited" and "bulk" are. spam is not about content, it is about consent.
e.g there is political spam, religious spam, and chain-letter spam.
if your example local school sent their notification to an opt-in list of people who wanted such notifications then it would not be spam. if, however, they sent it to everyone in the neighbourhood (or just to every parent) without first receiving a subscription request or obtaining prior consent then it would be spam.
a teenager who sends a chain letter to your entire domain IS spam, as well as annoying.
the student's email that this article about may or may not be spam. there isn't enough detail in the article to tell for sure.
if she sent it to an existing staff list at the university which ordinarily allows students to email staff then it certainly would not be spam.
if she constructed her own list then it might be spam. in any other context it certainly would be spam, but students DO have an implicit right to contact their teachers which makes it a grey area rather than clear cut.
if she repeatedly sent email to her self-constructed list in order to harrass or cause annoyance or disruption of mail service then it would be mail-bombing (a form of DoS) rather than spam.
Parent
Re:Mass mailing (Score:5, Informative)
Not quite [spamhaus.org]:
Chain letters are absolutely spam. If I didn't ask for it, and I don't want it, and there's nothing specifically relevant to me in the email, then it is spam. What do I care if it's commercial or not? It still takes the same amount of space in my inbox, and the same amount of effort to get rid of.
Parent
Re:Mass mailing (Score:5, Informative)
Appropriate response in this case would simply be a warning 'email' and a remedial course in the schools acceptable use 'guidelines' and policies.
Actually, the netadmin sent her an e-mail saying something to the effect of "this is against the rules, please stop", and her response was (again paraphrasing) "no, I'll do it again if I want to, and I dare you to do anything about it". Well, guess what... he did something. She tried to be a hero, despite being in the wrong, and it didn't turn out well.
Parent
That brings up an interesting question... (Score:4, Interesting)
Back in the day on Usenet, spam was more than just 'unsolicited commercial e-mail', it was pretty much any post that was cross-posted and off-topic.
So why do so many of us nowadays seem to equate spam with only 'unsolicited commercial e-mail'? In my mind, spam is any piece of unwanted bulk mail, whether it is 'commercial' in nature or not.
Because in the US (Score:3, Insightful)
It is legally much easier to regulate commercial speech. If you want any sort of anti-spam law, your best bet is there.
Re:That brings up an interesting question... (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Call the waaaaamulance. (Score:5, Interesting)
>Unless there are policies that say that this isn't allowed. The University has policies for distributing information, and this person ignored those policies.
Well no shit, sherlock. Of course the University is going to try and control the flow of information concerning unpopular policy changes.
Such attempts at control SHOULD BE ignored and thwarted.
The university was trying to pull a fast policy change. This girl alerted everyone to it using the most efficient, straight-forward technique available. I don't care if the university "has policies" for damage contro....er for distributing information. What she did was right.
Parent
I read her entire email (Score:5, Interesting)
it's linked in the news article. It was well written, not off topic, and expressed a reasonable concern about the time period students have to get to know the school apparently. It was not "spam" at all.
It sounds like the professors are more butthurt she got their email addresses than interested in responding to the concern she expressed.
They simply should have redirected her appeal to the right people if it was not appropriate to be sent via that email list. Instead they are being punative.
Re:I read her entire email (Score:5, Interesting)
If you also read the complaint, it is alleged that she was instructed the correct way to send the message and refused to do so. The compliant makes it sound like she was in a pissing contest with the network administrator. Not a good person to piss off if you want to send email.
"the student was informed of the proper procedures to follow and flatly refused to obtain proper permissions stating that she would continue to send emails out and demanded that I file charges against her."
sounds like she wanted some publicity to go with her spam.
Parent
And that was the correct response, too. (Score:5, Insightful)
If a "network administrator" told me I could not email all the faculty and staff at a university I was paying to attend concerning a change in university policy that affects everyone, I'd tell them to go piss up a rope, too.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
She wasn't e-mailing them about "a change in university policy that affects everyone". She was e-mailing them about why said change was a Bad Idea(TM), and apparently they didn't care to read her editorial column.
Wrong. (Score:4, Informative)
Whatever her opinion on the matter was, she WAS emailing the faculty about a change in university policy that affects everyone.
Parent
Re:I read her entire email (Score:5, Interesting)
If you also read the complaint, it is alleged that she was instructed the correct way to send the message and refused to do so. The compliant makes it sound like she was in a pissing contest with the network administrator. Not a good person to piss off if you want to send email.
Yes, many school administrators have the opinion that their department policy is teh law, regardless of what the student may have signed or what the university guidelines actually state.
For example, I knew someone at my university who registered a domain name to his dorm room computer. He got an email from the campus security admin telling him that was against university policy, and to take it down. The only thing the machine was serving was an image of the domain name, but he immediately did as requested. Then the student checked the universities guidelines on network usage, but was unable to find any policy on registering a domain to a campus ip address. The student asked the security admin to point out where this policy was written down. The security admin responded by trying to get the student suspended from the school.
Parent
Re:I read her entire email (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:I read her entire email (Score:5, Insightful)
It seems almost obvious that she's being prosecuted simply because she made the provost look stupid.
If any student can use mailing lists like this to challenge the provost so effectively... imagine the mayhem!!
Parent
Re:I read her entire email (Score:4, Interesting)
Spam is unsolicited bulk email, regardless of whether or not it is well written, relevant, or reasonable.
It sounds like the professors are more butthurt she got their email addresses
That is the whole point, she got their email addresses and sent them spam.
They simply should have redirected her appeal to the right people if it was not appropriate to be sent via that email list. Instead they are being punative.
I agree with you here, but according to TFA, when they did this she refused and vowed to repeat her actions. TFA did not mention why she refused, so it is possible that the system in place would not be timely enough or would dilute her message, so I will give her the benefit of the doubt. I think that her actions do not merit suspension. Just take away her email privileges.
Parent
Re:I read her entire email (Score:5, Insightful)
Spam is unsolicited bulk email, regardless of whether or not it is well written, relevant, or reasonable.
Then the student can counter-sue if the University ever her sent her spam over an upcoming basketball game, art exhibit, Last Lecture speech, etc.
Parent
Re:I read her entire email (Score:5, Informative)
I work in a higher education institution and I can confirm that spam in universities is every bit as bad as commercial spam. I have missed "critical" correspondence amid the deluge.
Sports games, concerts, seminars, grant funding, research opportunities, exhibitions, astronomical events, workshops, training programs, lectures, presentations, groups, religious services, bereavements, marriage announcements, faculty announcements, announcements for faculty positions, calls, recalls, talks, reminders, forwards, art exhibits, cancellations, car lights, missing animals, missing people, missing USB keys, HR notices and every manner of newsletter, weekly, monthly or per semester ... do battle for my inbox day after day. And this is all before people start using the internal email to buy, sell, solicit, advertise, as a soapbox on just about any conceivable issue (this is a university), or indeed as an instant messaging replacement for people who couldn't be bothered to type in several names and instead hit "reply all", or the sysadmin send us emails to tell us that the email system and/or internet is/was down... again.
Not a single part of this post is an exaggeration or fabrication. I've gotten all this and more. I imagine it's the same everywhere else.
Parent
Re:I read her entire email (Score:5, Informative)
How could the sysadmin not have seen this:
http://lct.msu.edu/guidelines-policies/bulkemail.html
"
# Permitted uses for broad cross-University mailing. Bulk e-mailing may be used only by University offices to send communications necessary to the normal course of business and which typically require some official action be taken individually by recipients. Such permitted uses include:
* Dissemination of urgent information of health and safety concern for students and University employees.
* Communication of information regarding changes of University policies or procedures, or actions that affect employment or compensation status, or status as a student.
* Regular communications (for example, to University employees) that are required by law, regulation or University policy for which bulk e-mail may largely replace paper transmittal.
"
So, according to their own policy, mass emailing of "...information regarding changes of University policies or procedures, or actions that affect employment or compensation status, or status as a student..." falls within acceptable use. That is assuming that this change to the university schedule is a "change in policy" or "affects employment". I don't see how that wouldn't be the case.
Parent
Re:I read her entire email (Score:5, Insightful)
I thought that too, at first, but then I noticed in TFA that her e-mail was not informative but rather dissension...
On Sept. 15, Kara Spencer, a senior and the associated students director at MSU, sent a letter to 391 university professors speaking out against a proposal from the Provost to shorten the fall semester by two days and to shorten Fall Welcome, reducing the amount of time new students would have to adjust to college living.
Probably that falls under "personal purposes" or "political statements or purposes", both of which purposes are explicitly prohibited in the document from which you quoted.
Parent
Re:I read her entire email (Score:5, Insightful)
It sounds like the professors are more butthurt she got their email addresses than interested in responding to the concern she expressed.
As a professor, I doubt it: most of us couldn't care less if we get one more unsolicited email from a student.
More likely she is the victim of some jobsworth in an administrative office who was on the mailing list and has nothing more important to do.
Parent
Re:I read her entire email (Score:5, Funny)
It was well written, not off topic, and expressed a reasonable concern
Well then it probably should never be posted to slashdot.
Parent
This is good news... (Score:5, Funny)
Because it means that we'll finally have an exact legal threshold in terms of number of recipients for an email to be considered spam, regardless of the contents or intent of the email. Zero tolerance policies are a really good idea, because they allow us to deal with violations--now matter how minor--in a uniform manner, and don't permit bureaucrats to allow things like reasonableness or circumstances to muddy the issue.
Is it just me (Score:4, Insightful)
"Selected faculty members"? (Score:5, Interesting)
She sent what amounted to a form letter to 391 professors. I certainly don't consider this spam. Given the lazy, unthoughtful way she went about this, I also don't consider this anything more than a waste of everbody's time. Sending what amounts to a bulk form letter via email isn't going to influence anyone.
Beyond that, I think it's more problematic that she apparently refuses to comply with university policies once notified about them. Her position basically is "I intend to continue sending out poorly thought out, ineffectual bulk messages to all faculty whenever I see fit." In that context, maybe it does become spam...
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Always comes down to definitions (Score:3, Insightful)
At least she didn't TELL EVERYONE HI (Score:5, Interesting)
When I was in college, a little-known feature of the mainframe system allowed anyone with an MVS account (every CS major and anyone who took a CS class) to send a bulk instant message to everyone on campus.
Astonishingly, this had the effect of shutting down all administrative offices, from payroll to the registrar to the financial aid office. This was because all the line printers had accounts too, and would choke on an improperly formatted input. Anyone with an account could do this. Of course it would be tied to your name, so in theory you'd want to use someone else's account.
About every couple years a student would learn about the feature and innocently TELL EVERYONE HI without realizing that they were about to enter a dimension consisting entirely of pain. I do not think that even this transgression would result in a suspension---the chair might have you murdered, but no suspension.
Re:At least she didn't TELL EVERYONE HI (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
Not SPAM, but what's this about free speech? (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't understand the free speech thing. No, it's not SPAM. Whether or not she actually abused the policy is up for someone else to decide, not me. But what is all this talk about free speech? Since when does freedom of speech mean you can break a the rules you agreed (I assume you have to agree to abide by them in order to be accepted into the school) to follow?
If she actually broke the policy, then the agreed-to consequences for it should happen. If she didn't, the school is being stupid, and the SCHOOL should face consequences. But this doesn't have to do with "freedom of speech."
First we need a good definition of spam. (Score:5, Interesting)
Is spam any unsolicited commercial email sent out to 20 or more recipients? If so, this is not spam.
Is spam any unsolicited advertorial email sent out to more than 1 person? If so, this is not spam.
Is spam any unsolicited email sent to more than 1 person? If so, this is spam.
The problem here is we need a legal definition of spam to define what it is. Then once the public knows what spam is, we can prosecute those who send it illegally, and stop wasting our damn time arguing what it is. Personally, I like the definition of any unsolicited email sent to more than 20 people...regardless of the content.
Re:First we need a good definition of spam. (Score:4, Funny)
I like your idea, and I have forwarded it to 20 of my closest friends with instructions that they do the same.
Parent
More on the MSU 'spammer' (Score:3, Interesting)
spamming the spammers (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Personally (Score:5, Funny)
That's funny. I once tracked poop (on purpose) onto my English professor(')s carpet for giving me a 64 (the lowest possible D before an F) because he didn't agree with my position on a paper (which was on a moral issue). He gave me a D because he knew I had put hard work into the document(,) but couldn't agree with my position.
Frankly, I'd give you a D for that paragraph alone.
Parent
Re:Personally (Score:4, Informative)
The comma shouldn't be there.
Parent