Iowa State Daily

Issue date: 4/7/08 Section: News

Recent contact made via Facebook by an ISU administrator has shown that students aren't the only ones keeping a watchful eye on what is being said online.

Since the 2008 Veishea wristband policy was announced, YouTube videos, letters to the editor and Facebook groups have all provided avenues for students and members of the community to voice their opinions and hold conversations about Veishea and the new policies that have been implemented.

At 1:53 p.m. on March 4, 2008, R.J. Green, ISU alumnus and organizer of the Facebook group "Lights, Protest, VEISHEA 2008," received a Facebook message from Interim Assistant Director of Student Activities Kris Olds, who also serves as a Veishea general co-adviser, regarding a discussion Green started on the Facebook group "Veishea + wristband = worst idea ever."

The discussion, titled "Tell Michelle Maubach She Sucks," detailed Green's disdain for the Veishea wristband policy and Live@Veishea event. The discussion included information that encouraged those who read the post to directly contact Maubach, a Live@Veishea coordinator and junior in kinesiology and health.

Olds, who said she never spoke directly to Maubach, said she was alerted to the post by Veishea general co-chairpersons Megan Todd, senior in marketing, and Kyle Peterson, junior in marketing, after Maubach had received what Olds described as a disturbing amount of phone calls.

Maubach could not be reached for comment.

The Facebook message from Olds, which was prefaced at noon on the same day by an attempted phone call to and voice mail left on Green's cell phone, included the following:

RJ,

I came across the discussion group you started about Michelle Maubach. I just left you a message on your cell phone. I have some concerns about the discussion on a few levels and would you to delete it [sic]. Primarily, Michelle was not the sole decision maker in this process and to put her name out there to take the heat is unfair and inappropriate.

My understanding is also that you were a TA for her in a self-defense class. This could be perceived as harassment based on that preexisting relationship. I'm sure you don't want to see this escalated.

You are more than welcome to share your concerns about the wristband policy and I, or any of the VEISHEA co-chairs, advisers, committee members or who ever else you want to talk with, would be happy to hear those.

I hope to see the discussion group down in the next hour.

Please let me know if you'd like to meet to talk about this further.

Kris Olds

Interim Assistant Director of Student Activities

VEISHEA General Co-adviser

1560D East Student Office Space

2229 Lincoln Way

Ames, IA 50011

515-294-8081

Green responded to Olds with a Facebook message of his own that said, "You have no idea what you're babbling about."

After receiving the message, Green obeyed Olds' request and removed the discussion from the Facebook group "Veishea + wristband = worst idea ever," which currently has 10,757 members. Olds said the number of phone calls to Maubach significantly decreased after it was removed.

Green said the Facebook message he received from Olds contained statements that were not factual.

Within the Facebook message, Olds refers to Green as a "TA for [Maubach] in a self-defense class," which Green said was not correct.

Green said he and Maubach did have a short-lived relationship outside of the classroom while he was a volunteer for the self-defense class in which she was enrolled.

"It's a completely voluntary position, and I receive no pay or benefits whatsoever," Green said of the role he plays in the Hapkido/Self Defense course. "I've more or less been the highest rank in that class for the last two years … I'm there for demonstration and clarification purposes only."

In regards to the contact he received from Olds, Green said he felt it was unprofessional and that she was "overstepping a boundary" by contacting him via Facebook.

"Where does a university administrator get off threatening an alumni with harassment charges?" he said. "She contacted me out of the blue on many occasions threatening to file some sort of legal charge against me if I didn't censor myself."

Green said he considered the Facebook message threatening.

"Where does she have any say over what can and can't be said in an Internet discussion?" he said. "What position of authority does she hold to threaten me in any sort of official capacity?"

In response to the discussion posted by Green, Olds said she had concerns about the information that presented and she would "have loved to have a face-to-face conversation" with him.

A face-to-face conversation between Olds and Green didn't take place during the time frame specified in the initial phone call, which Olds said was placed at "noon or so" on March 4, with the Facebook message sent at 1:53 p.m. that same day. To date, no verbal conversation between Olds and Green has taken place.

Olds said that, as an administrator, she uses Facebook as a tool to keep a watchful eye on the ISU community.

"I will fully own that it is a great tool for me to know kind of what the pulse is of the university," she said. "I definitely kind of review what groups are most active and what are kind of the issues on campus."

Gail Ferlazzo, associate director of the Memorial Union and Veishea general co-adviser, said she felt a text-based message may not have been the best way to discuss the material in the Facebook message from Olds to Green. She said individuals who are really seeking conversation on the wristband policy aren't the ones posting discussions on Facebook.

"The disadvantage of text is that you lack intonation and tone and all those aspects that can give indicators in terms of what the intent of the conversation is," Ferlazzo said. "If you really want to have a conversation, it's not on a Facebook group or in a letter to the editor. Those aren't people seeking conversation, those are people seeking an expression of their opinion."

Ferlazzo said that, even though Veishea decision-makers expected some backlash against the Live@Veishea wristband policy, no one expected it "to the degree" it has reached - a Facebook group with more than 10,000 members.

Jason Paull, an administrator for the Facebook group "Veishea + wristband = worst idea ever" and senior in chemistry, said that when the group was created, he never imagined it would balloon to the size it has.

He said the initial goal of the group was to simply inform the public of the issues with the wristband policies and that it was not a priority of the groups to make any personal attacks against individuals involved with Veishea.

"We only expected a few hundred people [to join the group]; it just took off very quickly," Paull said. "It shows that there are enough people on this campus that care about something. Joining a group on Facebook isn't the same as an actual protest, but it shows that people care, which is good, because student apathy in the past has been fairly prevalent at Iowa State."

ISU administrators had differing opinions on Facebook and its usage in academia.

"I think students often forget that it is a public forum and it is not a closed microcosm in terms of what you reveal about yourself. I think that's probably forgotten," Ferlazzo said. "It is absolutely a way to get a pulse on current trends, hot topics, latest interests, new ideas in terms of knowing what students are about."

Michael Bugeja, director of the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, said the exchange between Olds and Green may have been "good and well-intentioned," but technology often creates barriers for quality communication on an interpersonal level.

"We need to consider the platform and what it is created for, and then ask ourselves if an official university presence there is in the interest of the university, students and the resolution of difficult interpersonal issues that often can be mistaken by others for something they may not, in reality, be - only because we haven't taken the time to sit down with the person and to have a serious conversation so as to the resolve the issues face-to-face rather than via the medium that caused the problem in the first place," Bugeja said.

After reading the message for himself, Tom Hill, vice president for student affairs, acknowledged what he believed to be a typo in the third sentence of Olds' message to Green. Hill said just one missing word in the message Olds said she proofread more than once "would change the whole tenor of the note."

Hill said he wasn't opposed to the communication between Olds and Green, but he said he would hope that both Maubach and Green would be treated with equal respect.

"You don't take one student as opposed to another - all of you are students, and our responsibility is to deal with all of you and to protect and help and to advise all of you. Not one or the other," Hill said. "I'm hoping, for the most part, that the staff is doing the same thing.

"I'm hoping [Olds] may have chosen some different words, but I would be willing to bet that the intent is pretty much the same - not taking one student over another student."

Even in the case of both students being treated fairly and respectfully, Bugeja disagreed completely with the idea of Facebook as a proper medium for communication at a professional level.

"The platform causes the problem, and we seek to resolve the issue on the platform responsible for the dilemma?" he said. "Any critically thinking individual might know that this tends only to exacerbate any tension because of the on-demand aspect that technology plays to our impulses of the ordinary self."

Bugeja said the establishment of respectful, trusting relationships is something all members of the community need to pursue to take full advantage of the opportunities presented in academia.

"Maybe we could start showing a little respect," Bugeja said. "We can respect others even when we disagree with them … if we show respect to each other, then we build trust, and out of trust comes something wonderful.

"And that is a true higher education experience on a residential campus that is worth at least a substantial part of your tuition."

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