Columbia Council DIDN'T Vote to Block Juicy Campus

UPDATE: It appears I may have been punk'd. Bwog is reporting that there was no vote to ban JuicyCampus by Columbia's student council. The university magazine talked to a student council VP of Policy who "claims that a mischievous tipster must have sent in a fake tip to Gothamist and the [New York] Post." No tip was received at Gothamist, but the Post was the source of this afternoon's item, along with background from The Spectator.

PREVIOUSLY: The student council at Columbia University wants its Morningside Heights campus gossip a little less juicy. The council voted 25-15 in favor of blocking the site JuicyCampus.com on the school's servers. JuicyCampus.com is a multi-school message board site that allows anonymous posting of on-campus gossip. The anonymity that the site allows sometimes engenders posts that are crude and cruel. The Columbia Spectator reported that at the forum, a majority of student attendees and council members preferred that the site be blocked. Others argued that blocking it would limit free speech.

Students quoted in the New York Post seemed concerned about the effect the rumormongering could have once they left campus. JuicyCampus is not searchable by Google, but it wouldn't take much effort for recruiters or employers to comb the site when evaluating job-seekers. "At this age, when we're ready to apply for jobs, it's definitely an issue," said a senior described as the biggest slut at Columbia.

In NJ, the state attorney general is trying to take the decision of whether or not schools should block JuicyCampus across the state by opening a consumer fraud probe.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Dave Hogarty in News on March 23, 2008 4:10 PM

Comments [rss]

anopneumous

Also, Bwog is technically not a campus paper.

MFer

Can we stop using the word "punk'd", for fucking god's sake? It's so 2003. We can stop pretending that MTV or Asston Koocher is revelant anymore.

BorisM

Hey guys, you need to do some fact checking. This did NOT happen and the Columbia College Student Council is not considering a ban any longer, I am not sure where you got this info.

dr zippy

Columbia is not censoring anybody, babymoron. A few career-minded undergraduates who've had their (now regrettable, but fun at the time) undergraduate exploits mentioned on JuicyCampus want the university to block the site. The university is obviously not going to do anything of the sort.

anopneumous

What kind of company would waste time searching JuicyCampus for information on job applicants? And who would bleieve the stuff that was written on there anyway?

If I were rejected from a job because of a JuicyCampus post, I probably wouldn't want to work for that company anyway.

babyhitler

I find it hilarious that columbia always touts itself as one of the bastions of free speech and yet every single time it censors itself and makes the university full of hypocrites. They want only their messages of freedom. Such Bullshit! We need juicyalbany more than anything. Imagine if people knew about spitzer before he got elected none of this would have happened. Who watches the watchers?

Steven

Students can just go outside of campus and find wi-fi hot spot or use a proxy.

dk87

As much as I hate JuicyCampus this is a clear limit on free speech. However, as a private institution, I guess they have all the right to do what they want.