Juicy Campus Raises Issues on Campus

By Kyle Lawson

When Senate President Hugh McStravick mentioned at the beginning of the October 27 Student Senate meeting that any student who had to leave at eight was permitted to do so, but were asked to stay as long as possible senators and club representative alike realized something was up. What many probably did not expect was that Dean Ramsey would be speaking about Juicycampus.com.

Juicycampus is a website where students at five hundred campuses can post topics on anything about their school or anyone at the school anonymously. Gettysburg was added over the summer as the five hundredth school being mentioned in a special blog stating,:

” Just as Gettysburg was the turning point during the Civil War, we hope Gettysburg will be the turning point where JuicyCampus moves past the resistance put up by campus Administrations and students are free to discuss the topics that interest them most. JuicyCampus is, in Lincoln’s famous words, the website ‘of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

When asked how many students had heard of Juicycampus many in the Senate raised their hands. When asked how many had been to the site only a few put their hands down. Amanda Houlis, class of 2009, stood up before Senate and read an email her friend had sent to Dean Ramsey. The student had sent the email after being informed that she was mentioned on Juicycampus and what was said was bad enough she left campus for the weekend to get away from it.

Though the site was brought up no possible solution was given. As Dean Ramsey said near the end of the discussion, “We are just beginning to wrap our minds this issue…”

Gavin Foster, Associate Dean of College Life for Technology, explained the problem of trying to block the site, a solution some students favored. Even if the site were blocked students would still be able to get there by using proxy servers. Even sending a message to site seems out of the question as the site would simply spin it to turn into a fight to protect freedom of speech, and would attract more people to the site. Using the example of St. Lawrence who blocked a site that slandered the school’s president with the traffic going to site spiking.

At the October 27 meeting many students expressed an interest in having the site blocked. While a couple mentioned that doing so could set a dangerous precedent. They also wanted to stress that this site was not like Facebook, a site given as an example of what could happen. Other students were quick to point out that there was “zero comparison between this site and Facebook,” and that people have a, “right to be protected from slander.”

The discussion became so heated and began to go on for so long that Hugh McStravick asked that only those who had something new to add to the discussion raise their hands. Due to time and the need to address the rest of the agenda, pushed for any decision regarding the Senates position to be tabled. Stating that a special session of Senate would be held specifically for discussing what might be done.

Amanda Houlis who read the email her friend had sent to Dean Ramsey stated afterwards in an email that “It’s difficult to say what, if anything can be done specifically about the site. What is more pertinent, I think, is that students are coming together and discussing the issue like adults and attempting to find solutions to the problem. As some have said, the site itself is not our biggest issue; it is the anonymous posters who are maliciously attacking individuals, organizations, religions, races, subcultures, and economic class of the Gettysburg College community. I think the effort to end this behavior can and must start with us, the students. We are the patrons of the site and the power to cease the viewing and posting is ours. …The administration can meet us halfway and help us to make some smart institutional decisions as to mitigating the damages this website has caused and has the potential to cause in the future.”

At the November 3 meeting the recommendation to the administration was revealed. The Senate would not ask for the site to be blocked. Instead, they stated that it was the responsibility of the students to reject the site. On October 29 an event called Blackout Juicycampus was held to demonstrate student disapproval for the site.