Comments on: Michigan State to student: Political e-mail is spam

Student Kara Spencer never thought she'd be brought up on disciplinary charges for contacting professors to protest plans for a shorter fall semester. A ruling is expected soon.

[MTGrizzly]

Kara's lucky she is not in Missouri. If she was, the US Attorneys Office would prosecute her ...

[MTGrizzly]

Kara's lucky she is not in Missouri. If she was, the US Attorneys Office would prosecute her ...

[ksam114]

"And that's what FIRE thinks has gone wrong with MSU's disciplinary prosecution of Gross."

I think that is supposed to read:
"And that's what FIRE thinks has gone wrong with MSU's disciplinary prosecution of Spencer".

[close5828]

Don't forget, this is the same school that gave Robert Mugabe an honorary degree...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mugabe

[jatstuff]

I have to agree with MSU on this one. Mass mailing hundreds of faculty members about an issue, no matter how important, is pure spam. And I don't see how anyone has the right to use their school's email system to convey their message without restriction. I am sure there are other forums for Ms. Spencer to communicate her message on campus that are both more appropriate and more effective. Having said that, let's hope the disciplinary measures amount to some kind of admonishment (presuming this is the first time the abuse occurred).

[dramaqueenslo]

I completely disagree with your comment. I think in writing this article a couple important facts were left out of the equation. First off, Kara Spencer is not your average student involved in a political movement sending out emails to professors, as the writer made it sound. Kara Spencer, an undergrad in her 30s, serves as the Chief of Staff for Michigan State University's Undergraduate student government (the associated students of michigan state university). As a representative for her organization, which was involved in fighting the university's decision to change the fall semester, she emailed out faculty on a listserv which she was a part of. The university wanted to change the way the academic calendar was structured, eliminating an event titled "welcome week" in which students move in and get acquainted to campus, and also extending finals through to a saturday. Students and student groups across campus were outraged about this. The student government got involved, as it should, to represent the student body in this issue. Although I do not know exactly how the email was worded, it was an email about this issues of changing the academic calendar, and it's purpose was not "political" in nature, but rather informative. It was meant to let MSU faculty and staff know about the changes that would occur, and how it would affect them in their classes and schedules. Kara Spencer was not sending a spam political email. She was informing her fellow colleagues of an issue that was happening on campus. Kara should not be punished for her actions. If MSU wants to claim that any email that is sent to more than 30 people through MSU is considered to be spam mail than every student group and organization, every college, and even the president of the university should be up for charges in this matter.

[Belinus]

Agreed. I think people are focusing too much on the message's content. There are other ways to get faculty's attention such as addressing them in person, letters to the editor in The State News (MSU's paper), letters to the editor in the Lansing State Journal, etc. Above all that, there is also the faculty labor representation be it the Michigan Education Association or some other entity.

[Pete Bardo]

Personally, I agree that political email is spam. Actually, anything I did not specifically request to receive should be considered spam, no matter if it's from greatporn.com or from [e-mail].

Not disruptive? RU kidding me? How much time a day do you spend deleting spam? It's 2 or 3 hours nearly everyday for me.

Ok, we've stopped the political email, now let's stop political candidates from calling my cell phone and my home phone. While we're at it, let's make those robo-calls disappear too.

[marshakjack]

... and then, ultimatley, ban anyone who speaks out against the government. Brilliant Pete.

[sanenazok]

I receive hundreds of spam messages every day. I don't spend more than 10 minutes a day dealing with the flood since I have a spam filter. Sounds like you're in need of Spam Bayes.

[emsocean]

2 to 3 hours a day? get a life. then get a filter.

[DigitalFrog]

Actually, spam is unsolicited COMMERCIAL email. For those who did not want to receive Kara's email, it would deemed simply 'junk mail'. Since she is a student at the university, there is an implied precedence of an established relationship.

What I find ludicrous, is that if the university had a restriction on maximum of 30 recipients per email, why do they not enforce it via system policy? Plus all she would need to do is send out 10 separate mailings to 30 at a time, altering the message slightly to circumvent their rule. If the faculty do not want to hear from students, why would they make their email addresses public? As to jatstuff's comment about using other forums, why is email in today's age not appropriate, and if it is an ineffective medium, why has it garnered so much attention?

[locke_johnnn]

I go to MSU.

If FIRE wasn't backing this girl up, she'd be dealt a harsh punishment. MSU consistently makes bad policy decisions that are based solely in fear. If a professor had complained about a similar email with subject matter that was not an issue with the MSU administration, there is a high likelihood that no significant action would have been taken.

By acting in this manner, MSU implicitly reserves its right to harass and intimidate students with arbitrary and inconsistent interpretations of overly broad policies. The underlying psychological current is the MSU administration's deep-seated fear of resistance to their policy implementations and their need to maintain an image of control, even though more often than not, this school fumbles through its existence, relying on the vigilance (or special interests, as the case may be) of individuals to maintain operations.

[Belinus]

Given the history of MSU students, they need to be. Or has Gunson Street been forgotten? And let's not forget the Munn Field Incident. I mean come on. It took 4 trips to the Marshall Street Armory in Lansing for that "protest"

[fusillijerry]

that's funny, I wonder how they keep class sizes below 30 people in a public university... unless some Professors can also be alleged to have violated the arbitrary max recipients. Without checking, I can guess they have undergrad chemistry classes with +100 in them, and the prof most likely doesn't make a mailing list or subdivide the group to communicate with the class.

[dramaqueenslo]

exactly, as an undergrad at MSU, i can tell you i have had class sizes of over 600+ students....

[tfahey]

MSU has its own spam engine called "StatEmail" whose messages account for about 60% of my incoming mail to my MSU Email Account. The purpose of StatEmail seems to be to sell tickets to sporting events.

MSU also places very strict limits on the maximum space allocated for email. It's easily possible to fill the space with one years worth of emails with limited attachments, or say, two years worth of StatEmail.

This issue appears to demonstrate that the administration discourages students against using the email system in a manner which is certainly more academically productive than what it's used for.

[man_w_balls]

They can't prosecute her in Real Court unless she violated the CAN-SPAM act.
Said Act is very easy to follow if you are not trying to send any misleading emails - just include an option to opt out of future mailings by replying "Remove Me" from the list, and you're good.

[marshakjack]

Free speech!, Intellectual freedom! - but only for the Liberal Fascist professors who gorge at the trough of taxpayer subsidized salaries. Frauds and crooks through and through.

[clamenza]

What an idiot. Does this college sound very liberal? I hardly think so.

Of course, I think.

[marshakjack]

clamenza:

Of course it sounds like a liberal college you idiot. Liberals are tolerant of your views as long as its their view that you hold. Then watch out, because your labeled a homophobe, racist, sexist, etc. if they don't agree with you, because they don't have the brains to argue a point. Liberal do not tolerate free speech.

[MSSlayer]

Go away freeptard.

[mcugaedu]

I think it would be appropriate to inform the student that mass e-mailing is inappropriate. It is not appropriate to impose a heavy penalty unless you could show that she was aware of a prohibition and was flouting it. I also wonder if Michigan State's acceptable-use policy is as clear as, say, the University of Georgia's, which includes an explanation of why mass e-mailing is unwelcome.

[jatstuff]

The one criticism of MSU worth commenting on is the lack of any enforcement policy in their current email system. This strongly suggests that MSU wasn't taking their own policy very seriously. But now that someone has complained, they should take action. The responsible thing for MSU to do is: (1) update their mail servers to filter out spam (junk email if you prefer), and (2) drop this disciplinary action. So although MSU *might* have the right to discipline this student, it would be a *very* unfair and petty thing to do.

[dramaqueenslo]

Here is a link where you can read the content of the email, and see that it is CLEARLY not spam mail: http://www.thefire.org/pdfs/f41e4f45d70a14800b4c3e30a58c319a.pdf

[Draq Wraith]

You guys are worried about this when students across amerika are being arrested for passing gas in class and being disruptive, getting expelled for pointing the chicken finger at other students, Mothers are foricng their kids down on the ground and writing bad words on the forheads of their kids and sending them to school that way, gangs running around schools shooting and killing people, other idiots tossing tots around and tieing them to cots.

She does have a right to free speech but she should not abused the email system of the school for her own opinion, every university school has a paper and she could have sent a letter to the editor for it to be ignored there too. While we are on the subject it is not the faculty that sets the time limits it is the schools board of directors i think,

D~W

[gcoryer]

Hmmmmm, if the following quote from dramaqueen is correct, "she emailed out faculty on a listserv which she was a part of" it would seem that every person who e-mailed using that listserv violated the policy (apparently with collusion from the university IT department). Since the prosecution leans on the number of "e-mails" sent, unless every person who posted to that listserv is prosecuted, she has a defense that she is being singled out for selective prosecution. Or the university will have to admit that they are really prosecuting her for the content of her e-mail which is a violation of the First Amendment.
GaryC

[humanssssss]

That's the problem with spam law. If people don't like the email, they can block it. If people don't like to read email, they don't have to open their email. If people don't like a lot of email, they don't like, then don't receive them. Who's fault is it that you want to receive email?!?

[Belinus]

Funny thing is people are focusing on the CONTENT of the message. The content is irrelevant. What matters is she broke the rules. Doesn't matter if it is a gas protest chain letter, an opinion piece that runs contrary to the university line, a request to buy popcorn for her son's boyscout fundraiser or a recipe for cookies.

MSU's policy seems to be very clear even if they choose not to implement a system block. God forbid they actually trust people to follow the rules which are clearly spelled out in the manner both to the restriction and the reasoning behind it. It is their system and their choice to run it. If you do not like it, do not use it. It is just that simple.

She had plenty of opportunity to voice her objections in more effective ways. MSU has its own independent newspaper called The State News which is housed off-campus. East Lansing has a local paper known as the Lansing State Journal. She could have written to either of those papers. Since she was dealing with a faculty issue she could have e-mailed the American Association of University Professors who are the collective bargaining entity for faculty. They would most certainly be interested in these things.

As for the fact she used a listserve, you are all lacking one piece of vital information.... The purpose of that listserve.

You people can blather on and on about liberal fascism and free speech all you want. All you do is give legitimate first amendment violations a bad name. If the powers that be in the hearing decide that she di in fact break the rules, than she broke the rules and will be reprimanded appropriately. You all neglect the fact they could say that she did not and let her off scott free.

[AdamKissel]

(1) The rules themselves are unconstitutional and may not legally be enforced. They are unconstitutional because they are not content neutral and because they restrict the freedom of speech far beyond any "narrowly tailored" restriction in service of a compelling governmental interest. See the blog posts on this topic at www.thefire.org.

(2) Spencer did not use a listserv. As the documents at www.thefire.org show, she carefully selected the 391 faculty members she e-mailed out of a database she constructed herself.

(3) I leave it to readers to decide whether a letter to the editor of the Lansing State Journal would have been a "more effective" way than direct e-mai for Spencer to reach members of the MSU community who had a legitimate interest in knowing about the proposed calendar changes as soon as possible. I also doubt that the local AAUP would have agreed to circulate Spencer's personal views.

Adam Kissel, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education

[AdamKissel]

BREAKING NEWS: Student Government Leader at Michigan State University Found Guilty of ?Spamming? after Criticizing Administrative Decision

http://www.thefire.org/index.php/article/10020.html