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Student Faces Suspension For Spamming Profs

Posted by kdawson on 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.

2 of 516 comments (clear)

  1. I read her entire email by deft · · 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.

    --

    There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
  2. First we need a good definition of spam. by imyy4u3 · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Is spam any unsolicited email sent out to 20 or more recipients? If so, this is spam.

    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.