Monday, January 28, 2008

Alumna questions SGA resolution

By Airan Scruby

SGA's recent resolution to ban JuicyCampus.com from Pepperdine's internet server struck a blow against the students who elected SGA's members, and it demonstrates once again that the organization is not looking out for the rights and needs of their constituents. Rather, they keep up appearances for an image-conscious few. By ignoring the ramifications of such a decision on student speech and ability to gather information on campus, SGA is stealing the free will of the students who elected its members.

After hearing about the decision, I read every post on JuicyCampus.com over the past week. Most were immature, petty and sex-obsessed. But that doesn't change that students are expressing something what they think. While hurtful comments without a reason are indefensible, it does not change the writer's right to make them.

I am currently working as a reporter at the Whittier Daily News, a medium-sized paper based in the San Gabriel Valley, and my job is to cover a city, Pico Rivera. Several Web sites exist as "watch dogs" for the community, where people can anonymously post their thoughts about local politics. Often, posts are mean-spirited and not based in fact. Some call the morality of city leaders into question, while others accuse them of illegal activities.

Ugly things are said on those Web sites, but they represent a beautiful thing: freedom to speak your mind, regardless of how crazy or mean you are when you do so. And sometimes, those Web sites are used by reasonable people who start intelligent debate about what should be done in Pico Rivera. Reporters at the newspaper often check those sites and follow up by investigating the claims made on them. Occasionally, these watch dogs help to uncover corruption in their community.

SGA could have made the decision to use JuicyCampus.com as a forum for debate and discussion. They had the opportunity to encourage students to elevate the discourse there, and to use the site to point out the strengths and weaknesses of the university. Student journalists at Pepperdine, at the Graphic and Newswaves, could have followed up on claims and questions raised there, improving the flow of information for students.

Instead, the decision has been made to stifle student freedom and to squander an opportunity to give this cloud a silver lining.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

The Resolution SGA passed last night banning JuicyCampus.com

Resolutions
Policy

SGA Support for a Ban of Juicycampus.com

1. Whereas the website “Juicycampus.com” is having a detrimental effect upon the Pepperdine community and endangering the emotional welfare of many students, and,

2. Whereas, Pepperdine University has the capability to selectively block this website from its internet network, and,

3. Whereas, restricting access to this website would cause a significant decrease in the amount of traffic the website receives from Pepperdine, and,

4. Whereas, the longer the situation is allowed to persist, the greater will be likelihood that someone will be seriously emotionally traumatized by this website, and,

5. Be it hereby resolved that, Juicycampus.com be blocked from the Pepperdine internet network, and

6. Be it further resolved that, SGA send official letters of support for this action to Dean Davis, President Benton, and the General Council.

Authored by: Austin Maness, VP of Administration
Seconded by: Clint Harp, Executive Vice-President

The bad arguments to ban JuicyCampus.com

I heard a lot of weird arguments last night for why this Web site should or should not be banned. There was a lot of talk about what we should do as a college community and as a Christian community.

Here are the top 5 bad reasons I heard last night to ban access to JuicyCampus.com:

5. If something was posted anonymously on the Freedom wall it would be removed.

4. The students posting on this site will not be persuaded by an advertising campaign so why bother.

3. Not banning the site is like watching a wildfire.

2. It is SGA's job to protect students, and protect students from lawsuits.

1. If it is censorship, so be it.

Lets talk about JuicyCampus.com


I was one of about half a dozen students that attended the SGA meeting last night to discuss a resolution to ban access to the Web site from Pepperdine's campus. I was glad to see that the senators spent some time debating the topic before just voting to pass the resolution.

I am very disappointed that SGA had a knee-jerk reaction to try and censor the students they represent instead of use the thousands of student dollars and other resources at their disposal to actually attempt to solve this problem.

The bottom line here is that I do not want any group of students or administrators deciding for me or anyone else what Web site I should not be allowed to view. I did not vote for any member of SGA so they could attempt to govern students actions.

Asking the administration for censorship is dangerous and short sighted. The ban will not solve any problems. These are not posts being written by me as an editor at the Graphic, these posts are being written by you guys, your roommates, Greek brothers and sisters and people with too much time on their hands.

No one supports or agrees with whats happening on the Web site. SGA has formed a subcommittee that will hopefully have an actual dialogue with students about these issues instead of trying to govern student actions.

Top Graphic Stories

Pick up your copy of the Graphic on newsstands around campus today, or read stories on the Online Graphic.

Here are my picks for the top 3 stories from this issue:

1. SGA votes to ban Web site

2. Sports editor Greg Barnett spends 10 minutes with the new basketball coach.

3. Florence students kick it with soccer team

Back to blogging

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