The Observer, March 10, 2006
Volume XXXVIII, Issue 20
Free Speech Zone: First-year e-mail issues show lack of respect for peers
To the Editor:
This past week the first-year students of Case experienced something that no class ever should. No, I am not talking about the vote of no confidence in our president. I'm talking about the rash of unsolicited e-mails sent out to Class of 2009 students requesting roommates. This may seem rather inncocuous, but when responses come daily and threats on other students come about, this minor nuisance has crossed the line into absurd.
This situation arose from an error early in the year by the Class Officers who did not hide the addresses of their recipients in a mass e-mail. This single error has been exploited by several students in order to distribute wonderful e-mails with pictures of clogged toilets (need I say more?), several roommate requests, and shameless "Housing Quizzes" sent out as jokes to their fellow classmates, sometimes more than 10 times a day. E-mails sent out from anonymous G-mail accounts are tough to track since they do not come from a Case address, making it hard to deal with the issue through judicial action. This has been going on all year and the first-year students are fed up with it.
I am not a first-year student, but I can understand the frustration students have coming back to their computers to find senseless banter and disgusting images in their mail box on a daily basis. This is a blatant abuse of Case's Acceptable Use Policy for the network. But besides that fact, where is the respect for your peers? Surely, sending out an e-mail to your close friends is harmless and may be rather funny, but by sending it out to an entire class, your class, what is there to prove? This is a senseless act and should not need to be dealt with by the University. It comes down to students confronting those sending the e-mails and getting the perpetrators to respect their fellow classmates. If you can't respect your peers, why should they respect you?
Doug Bentley
Undergraduate Student
