2008 Woodie Awards
And things get ugly when scholars decide to argue over the Internet
Staff Editorial
Issue date: 11/7/06 Section: Opinion
Halloween, followed by an election week, must have freed the witches.
Last week, recipients of the San Diego Community College District's distribution lists witnessed an outrageous exchange of e-mails (unfortunately not for the first time). The content and language used should have been kept between four walls. Instead, they were sent to every single e-mail in the DLs of one of the largest employers in the county. We are talking about over 5,000 full and part-time employees working for the district, according to its Web site.
With the Internet, where no information can be totally safe or confidential, people should not expect information to be private, especially if the recipients exceed three digits. People on Community College District DLs, specifically, should use adequate language that matched their academic environment.
This episode started when a student, that has been elected to the position of Associate Students President, Student Trustee and Community College CT Board Member (and will be referred as the student in this article), sent e-mails requesting scholars to participate in an "Evening with Experts" event. The debate was over politics and the calling was: "We will have a panel of four on each side (conservative and progressive). We will pick one issue to start with and throw other issues in once the horses have been beaten to death."
As the student realized there would not be enough people to join the panel, he sent the following words to the DLs: "Due to the fact I cannot find enough conservatives to fill the panel I am going to postpone this event…I find it disturbing that I can find many professors…(that) stand up for liberal ideas…(but only) two conservative…in the entire district. I pose this question. Do we really promote diversity?"
Convenient enough, recipients are caught by the student's online debate proposal and start writing back. One response was: "Rather than engaging in meaningless labeling, why don't you look specifically at what each professor brings to the table. I might humbly suggest that you…enroll in a critical thinking class," while another was: "How would you promote 'ideological' diversity? You're right about San Diego County. The East and North County are not liberal. The head of the KKK lives in Fallbrook."
Last week, recipients of the San Diego Community College District's distribution lists witnessed an outrageous exchange of e-mails (unfortunately not for the first time). The content and language used should have been kept between four walls. Instead, they were sent to every single e-mail in the DLs of one of the largest employers in the county. We are talking about over 5,000 full and part-time employees working for the district, according to its Web site.
With the Internet, where no information can be totally safe or confidential, people should not expect information to be private, especially if the recipients exceed three digits. People on Community College District DLs, specifically, should use adequate language that matched their academic environment.
This episode started when a student, that has been elected to the position of Associate Students President, Student Trustee and Community College CT Board Member (and will be referred as the student in this article), sent e-mails requesting scholars to participate in an "Evening with Experts" event. The debate was over politics and the calling was: "We will have a panel of four on each side (conservative and progressive). We will pick one issue to start with and throw other issues in once the horses have been beaten to death."
As the student realized there would not be enough people to join the panel, he sent the following words to the DLs: "Due to the fact I cannot find enough conservatives to fill the panel I am going to postpone this event…I find it disturbing that I can find many professors…(that) stand up for liberal ideas…(but only) two conservative…in the entire district. I pose this question. Do we really promote diversity?"
Convenient enough, recipients are caught by the student's online debate proposal and start writing back. One response was: "Rather than engaging in meaningless labeling, why don't you look specifically at what each professor brings to the table. I might humbly suggest that you…enroll in a critical thinking class," while another was: "How would you promote 'ideological' diversity? You're right about San Diego County. The East and North County are not liberal. The head of the KKK lives in Fallbrook."
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