Official party pooper riles Seattle U. students

Sun., June 1, 2008

Nick Perry Seattle Times

Facebook under Canada probe

TORONTO – Canada's federal privacy commissioner has launched an investigation into Facebook after four students complained that the popular Web site violates Canadian law by disclosing personal information to advertisers without proper consent.

The University of Ottawa law students, some of whom are dedicated Facebook users, allege in a complaint lodged Friday that the social networking Web site has committed 22 violations of the law.

Facebook has refuted the claims.

Canadian law mandates that sensitive information can't be disclosed without gaining express consent. On Facebook, users must specifically change their settings to keep that information private.

Associated Press

SEATTLE – Four Seattle University seniors who tried to organize an off-campus party over Memorial Day weekend say it was supposed to be a last hurrah before graduation with a theme that pokes fun at fraternity and sorority types.

Women were to wear Victoria’s Secret Pink-brand sweats or Abercrombie & Fitch clothing and talk constantly on their cell phones, according to the invitation on the social-networking site Facebook. Guys were to wear turned-up – “popped” – collars, aviator sunglasses and flip-flops. The event was dubbed the “Douchebag” party.

But when Seattle U. administrators found the invite on Facebook, they were not impressed.

“Be advised that your online advertising for the party of Sunday May 25th is potentially in violation of the Seattle University Code of Student Conduct,” wrote Glen Butterworth, assistant to the dean of students, in an e-mail to the seniors. “You will be held responsible if you host an event with a theme of gender bias.”

The seniors decided to cancel their party. So, too, did another group of students hosting an off-campus party earlier in May – also advertised on Facebook – when Butterworth showed up on their doorstep. Butterworth told those students he knew of their plans, and that city police and state liquor authorities would enforce any code violations.

The incidents have some of the 7,500 students at the Catholic college fuming about what they see as heavy-handed tactics and online snooping by administrators. But Butterworth said the university administration monitors sites like Facebook only when something is specifically brought to their attention, and that they are acting in the Jesuit tradition of “cura personalis” – care of the whole person.

“Our education doesn’t really stop when students leave the classroom,” Butterworth said. “In some ways, it begins there.”

But Nicholas Lollini, editor of the student newspaper The Spectator, in an editorial last week compared administrators to baby-sitters who are “flexing their authority in a pre-emptive fashion.”

“It is the responsibility of the institution to provide an integrated and fulfilling academic experience, not to arbitrarily seek out and expose individuals who choose to spend their off-campus time in a fashion that the university does not hold in high regard,” he wrote.

Butterworth, a Jesuit who lives on campus, said he has stopped by perhaps two dozen student houses either before or after parties in nearly two years at Seattle U.

Butterworth said his intent is not necessarily to shut down parties: “I understand. I want to shake a leg, as well,” he said. “I am just hoping they will be responsible.”