University Networks Block Student Project

An anonymous reader writes "A computer science student at University College London put together FitFinder as a bit of a joke — it's been described as a cross between Twitter and personal ads, and it rapidly became very popular. The university took exception to this and started by blocking the site from being accessed on campus. Not content with this, a few weeks later it fined the student £300 and had him take the site down completely. Currently, the site is still offline, although there is a petition with several thousand signatures requesting its return. In the meantime, a site called PhitFinder has appeared, claiming to have no link to the original."

Comments

Re:what has the university to do with it?

[maxume]

It are happen in Europe.

Stop having control

[Darkness404]

If you are old enough to attend college/university you are old enough to do whatever you want. Stop "babysitting" and let students do whatever they please. Universities and colleges exist to educate people and hand them a piece of paper letting them get a job. Thats all they should do. Let students think for themselves, give them facts and have them make their own opinion and do what they want with them.

Re:Stop having control

[Bjorn_Redtail]

He is hosting it on a proper server. From TFA:

A university spokesman said: “UCL does not approve of or condone this site. We therefore advised the student to take the site down, but he declined to do this. UCL has no jurisdiction over the site, as it is not UCL-hosted. We have, however, taken disciplinary action against the student for bringing the college into disrepute and he has been fined.”

Re:Stop having control

[Anonymous Coward]

It's intolerant Trolls like yourself that support oppression and censorship. Neoconservatism may be popular, but just because everybody is jumping on the Special Interest Group bandwagon doesn't mean that you have to be as immoral as everybody else.

If you don't like TV then turn it off, if you don't like Web Sites then don't click on their links. And finally, if you're going to mouth off about an article you should at least read it first (which you obviously haven't).

Some normal people in this world are getting sick and tired of Right Wing people (whether they be feminists or climate-change deniers) trying to force their intolerant attitudes and lifestyles on other people.

Re:Stop having control

[ultranova]

If you attend a college or university, chances are you are held to a standard of behaviour that prevents you from making the learning institution look like a fool.

Held by what authority? Please explain the logic that justifies the university - or, for that matter, any organization - demanding complete control over its students lives?

Admissions papers are full of "Sign here on the X", one of them was your agreement to not be a jackass and accept the college's rulings on your behavior.

Do you honestly think that you are bound to university's will just because you signed a paper? That they can simply decide that they don't like something you've done so you have to pay them 300 pounds? Seriously?

Don't like it? There's the door.

Except that, as you yourself noted, the student and the university have a contract.

Re:Stop having control

[clustro]

What in god's name are you talking about?

In my senior year of engineering, I had to work with a team on a design project, and we presented it not only to the faculty, but the industrial advisory board - big shots at companies. The sole purpose was to prove to the employers that the department was producing engineers worth hiring.

I was visiting schools for doctoral programs this past spring, and met many graduate students whose professors had lined up a job or good post-doc for them afterward. That's one of the things that made the programs I visited so popular - they don't leave you hanging on welfare after you blow 5 years of your life on an advanced engineering degree. A good school helps you get a job - either by the prestige of the degree, or direct intervention by faculty and staff. This is the 21st-century, not the 16th.

Re:what has the university to do with it?

[Pedersen]

Ya know, I really don't reply much, but the whole "anti-american" thing has gone too far when the damned summary includes something that tells anybody that knows anything about currency that this is not US thing. Here, allow me to quote it:

they fined the student £300

You might be especially interested in the currency indicator. That "£" symbol is used to denote the UK currency unit called the "pound". Over in the actual article (I know, nobody ever reads it, but I still did), they say this:

Rich Martell, 21, a final-year computer sciences student at University College London, has taken the site down under pressure from university authorities, who were concerned that it was distracting students from their studies.

So, at least in this case, no, it is not an "american thing". It is, most definitely, a "London thing". As London is considerably closer to Europe (and, being part of the UK, is considered to be part of Europe) than any part of the USA, I would have to venture that your assertion

Here in europe, the university has nothing to do with their students privat projects.

is now verified to be false. In fact, it might be so far false that this could be considered to be a "European thing", though I'm not sure I'd take it that far myself.

Re:what has the university to do with it?

[Mitchell314]

Because we don't call our schools "University College"?

A fine and a takedown order?

[Adrian Lopez]

Not content with this, a few weeks later they fined the student £300 and had him take the site down completely.

There's a university with far too much power.

ta heck with the degree

[zogger]

That's a zillion buck idea he had up and running! He should have told them to stuff it. That would have made the site even more popular as word of his telling "the man" to f off spread around his users and their friends. Plenty of time later to go get all the degrees ya want once you are rolling in dough.

Re:what has the university to do with it?

[Tanuki64]

You are absolutely right. Nevertheless, it tells much when everybody automatically assumes this is an American thing.

Re:Typical

[canajin56]

The university isn't hosting it, he is.

He should probably wander down to the law faculty

[jimicus]

From TFA:

Dean of Welfare (Students), wrote: “Following the serious complaints brought to this institution regarding the contents of the site and your association with it, I find myself having to bring a charge under UCL’s Disciplinary Code of Bringing the College into Disrepute. Therefore I am fining you £300.”

IANAL but AFAIK private organisations in the UK cannot enforce fines - that's a privilege open exclusively to the government. And the nation's universities are essentially private institutions (albeit receiving heavy state funding).

Having said that, if the university I went to was any guide they'll probably have something in their rules which states that if you owe them so much as a penny on graduation day, you don't graduate. And though they may not be able to get a judge to force him to pay, I have no idea if he'd be able to get a judge to force them to write off the £300 "fine".

UCL brings it's self into disrepute

[Martin Spamer]

By stifling a creative and enterprising endeavour the UCL brings it's self into disrepute.

Re:what has the university to do with it?

[Jedi Alec]

It's their understandable embarrassment over having to have the US save their asses twice in the last century.

Actually, no. It's the way you guys pissed away every last shred of credibility in the years following 9/11, which is quite an accomplishment. You get attacked, you have the entire civilized world on your side, and within a few years you manage to piss every last one of us off to the extent that saying "we're going to distance ourselves just a wee bit from the US" is a surefire way of grabbing a few more votes.

I honestly doubt Osama bin Laden could have possibly imagined just how much of a success his attack would turn out to be. He set the opportunity for the US to show the world what it is all about and well, it did.