 "Photo: juicycampus.com")
In response to student concerns and comments, the Student Government Association passed a motion at last Wednesday's meeting that condemned the deplorable acts committed on campus and called on the administration to ban the website, Juicycampus.com.
Since then, however, on-campus access to the site has been visibly hampered.
"We prioritize traffic (bandwidth) to academic and enterprise applications e.g. Blackboard, e-mail, Datatel, Kronos, etc.," said Brian Kelly an information security officer via email. "All other traffic including web traffic is then left to compete for remaining bandwidth."
Kelly added: "Nothing specifically was done to make it difficult to load the page."
The act SGA passed, which has been named the "Deplorable Motions Act," is the work of sophomore class representative Louis Venturelli. Due to some of the recent events on campus and the nature of the gossip and information posted on Juicycampus.com, Venturelli felt it was time for something to be done.
"We received a lot of student concerns in regards to Juicycampus.com and the students just wanted to do away with it," said Venturelli. "As a student government body we had to take a proactive approach and just do what they wanted to."
However, Kelly asserted: "We (QU) do not currently block any websites."
The Juicycampus.com website is a place where students can post whatever information they would like. According to the Juicy Campus website, "Juicy Campus offers user-provided information regarding events, courses, people and groups at educational institutions."
While there have been calls to ban the website on many campuses, universities and colleges have faced a tough time doing so because banning the site is viewed as limiting students' freedom of speech. The founders of the website have found a loophole in legal responsibility by claiming that they are not the true authors of the posts and therefore cannot claim responsibility. According to the website, "Juicy Campus is not the author of the posts on the site. Rather, Juicy Campus is the provider of an interactive computer service."
In response to why the site, Juicycampus.com, has not been loading on campus, Kelly said that the response times for any website is dependent on the bandwidth available at a given point during the day.
This has not deterred Venturelli and other members of the SGA's Student Awareness Committee from trying to ban the website here. Venturelli also has worked to tie together the recent "deplorable acts" on campus and what has been written on Juicy Campus into one motion. He feels that there is no difference between where something is written, all that matters is that something offensive and derogatory is being said.
"The way we view it is, somebody could write something on a whiteboard and the school could frown upon it," said Venturelli. "Now what's the difference between writing it on a whiteboard and writing on an open forum on the Internet."
On top of addressing student concerns in regards to the website, the SGA's Student Concerns Committee has also worked to garner student support by trying to unite student organizations in taking a stand against the website.
Vice President of Student Concerns Jason Caplin recently sent out an e-mail to the leaders of student organizations calling for a united front against the Juicy Campus website.
"A lot of student organizations supported it," said Caplin. "The e-mails I received were not just 'I support it', they were 'anything I can do to help, let me know'. The support has been awesome, it's been better than what I would have ever expected."
The passing of this motion and the support that it has gained has provided an important moment for the SGA when it comes to student concerns.
"This is a huge moment for our school and our community," said Caplin. "I think it's great for Student Government to take a stance, but I also think it's great that all these organizations are working with us."
The Quinnipiac administration has also been receptive to the idea of banning Juicy Campus. Right now the administration and SGA are focusing on making sure that all the proper steps are taken.
"They [administration] have been supportive of the student body and the Student Government Association, so we're going in the right direction," said Caplin.
The major concern for schools and universities looking to ban the website is whether it violates freedom of speech. Since the web site's actions are technically protected by the law, it has been difficult for schools to completely ban Juicy Campus. The fear of censorship has been voiced by a few students in regards to banning Juicy Campus from Quinnipiac, but most have been supportive of the SGA's actions.
"Well, some people do feel that it is censorship, however the majority of people that I speak to are in the 'pro' about this," said Venturelli. "They really think that it is a step in the right direction that the Student Government has taken."
In a post on Juicycampus.com from Saturday, an anonymous user posted on the Quinnipiac forum: "This isn't high school where they ban sites from their computers...we're 20-somethings paying a ****load of money for qu and 'their network.' we should be able to go on whatever web site we want."
The motion immediately gathered praise from one member of administration, as Senior Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs Mark Thompson was present at the meeting. He praised the SGA and the student body for coming together to pass such a motion.
"I cannot tell you how proud I am that you have done this," said Thompson.
For now, the SGA will continue to work with administration in hopes that students will realize the harmful effects the web site on the Quinnipiac campus and community.
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