Student Cleared Of Charges She Spammed Teachers At Her University

from the common-sense-prevails dept

Thu, Jan 29th 2009 5:48am — Mike Masnick

Back in December, we wrote about a student at Michigan State University, who was disciplined by the school for spamming, after she sent out an email to all of the professors at the school concerning a schedule change that would impact their class schedules in a future semester. One teacher complained, and the student was found to have violated the school's anti-spam policy, which said you couldn't email more than 30 people at a time. This seemed silly, as the message was clearly not spam in the traditional sense at all. After a widespread public outcry, and the EFF preparing a lawsuit on the student's behalf, the school has backed down and cleared the woman of any wrongdoing, and said that it will review and potentially change its anti-spam policies.

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Filed Under: email, free speech, spam, universities
Companies: michigan state university

21 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jan 2009 @ 6:19am

Another one way street
I assume that their (TBR) policy only aqpplies to the students and not the university. The university probably sent emails to all the students on a routine basis. And the university also (most likely) spams the alumni on a regular basis.
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asdf, 29 Jan 2009 @ 6:31am

Yeah, this was probably some dumb egotistical professor that complained. This is where law should not override common sense.
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- Ima Fish, 29 Jan 2009 @ 6:33am
  
  Re:
  "dumb egotistical professor"
  
  A little redundant, don't you think? ;-)
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  - Dan, 29 Jan 2009 @ 6:38am
    
    Re: Re:
    Redundant, sure, but also an excellent point and one that is emphasized through it's redundancy.
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    - Anonymous Coward, 29 Jan 2009 @ 6:55am
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      dumb != egotistical
      
      dumb != professor
      
      egotistical != professor
      
      So how the hell is it redundant? Sounds like some people need to go back to school...
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      - Anonymous Coward, 29 Jan 2009 @ 7:09am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        dumb egotistical = professor
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        pferland (profile), 29 Jan 2009 @ 7:15am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
        I think its more of an oxymoron then anything else
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        Anonymous Coward, 29 Jan 2009 @ 7:29am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
        I take offense to that. I am friends with a number of professors, and, while there certainly are a number that fit the category of "dumb egotistical professor" many do not.
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      - Justin, 29 Jan 2009 @ 8:04am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        In a general sence --
        
        egotistical == professor
        egotistical == dumb
        
        So you could draw the line that links:
        
        professor == dumb
        
        So ...
        
        Dumb egotistical professor is redundant
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      - Dan, 29 Jan 2009 @ 8:29am
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        It's an implication that all professors are dumb and egotistical, not that dumb = egotistical = professor
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jan 2009 @ 6:40am

I've actually had a course with this professor and really enjoyed it. That being said I was pretty shocked to discover it was her.
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dazcon5, 29 Jan 2009 @ 7:37am

AC - offended
1. Tough shit, deal with it.
2. Most of us could care less that you're offended.
3. Get over yourself.
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Some IT Guy, 29 Jan 2009 @ 7:46am

Teachers.....
Wow, I can't believe they let some people teach....
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TriZz, 29 Jan 2009 @ 8:54am

Penis
There's way too much penis in this thread than ANYONE should ever have to deal with...
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jan 2009 @ 9:31am

spelling
wazzup my nigga, you mispelled ass 12,751 times
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Rockon, 29 Jan 2009 @ 9:31am

Re: Penis
Fucker as bitch?
What?
Fucker isn't an adjective, is it? Is fucker a property of bitch?
Quick, get me an egotistical dumb English professor who specializes in obscenities!
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dude101, 29 Jan 2009 @ 9:47am

Geez. This has got to be one of the dumbest things I've heard of yet. Univerisities generally are not like this and Michigan is obviously an exception to the rule. Since everyone is tossing around the term "teacher" I am wondering what the credentials are of the people involved.

Teachers are not professors. Professors are generally who lectures at a University and most do not 'teach'. If it was a teacher with a BEd degree then all I can is I'm not surprised. Generally, professors are so wrapped up in their research that they rarely have time for such petty complaints. And I know of none that would do such a thing to harm a students career (esp. when they are helping the system).
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Mike (profile), 29 Jan 2009 @ 9:53am

Spammer deleted
Sorry for the foul-mouthed spammer... those comments have been deleted. Not surprisingly... the IP address was from a jr. high school, and the quality of his comments reflected that.
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- TriZz, 29 Jan 2009 @ 12:49pm
  
  Re: Spammer deleted
  Feel free to delete my previous comment regarding the other comment. It has no validity now that the original comments are (rightfully) gone.
  
  ...I shouldn't have fed the trolls.
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Jasen Webster (profile), 29 Jan 2009 @ 2:07pm

Reject emails
The university should reconfigure their email system. Most have an option to reject emails with more than X recipients. If this is a result of emailing a particular group, then that group should be eliminated or modified to allow allow emails from certain people. These problems occur in the business world as well, but the answer is not discipline, but rather teaching email etiquette.

Instead of modifying the policy for future abusers, why not be proactive and prevent issues like this by reconfiguring their email system?
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Andrew D. Todd, 29 Jan 2009 @ 4:23pm

Spammer deleted, #18
To Mike Masnick:

You are of course very patient with some of your correspondents.

A small technical note: It is better to replace the offending message with "Message Deleted" or whatever, so that the comment numbers and URL's of the following comments remain stable.

This is something we've encountered more in the political blogs, because grown men of fifty and sixty sometimes lose their tempers and begin screaming at each other.
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