Editor, Daily Nexus,

Even though I am a graduate student, I was compelled to write in after reading your article, (“Facebookers To Face Write-Ups for Dorm Photos,” Daily Nexus, Sept. 29). This new non-policy (it appears neither in current resident handbooks nor lease agreements) is yet another example of the university taking its cues from the I.V. Foot Patrol, turning the university experience into four years of panoptic state management of students who are, by and large, legally adults. Housing and Residential Services student leadership coordinator Lisa Slavid is quoted as saying, “It’s the same as someone sliding an incriminating photo under the door.” But is there a “policy” in place to discern whether these allegedly incriminating photos are authentic, a policy to discern the motives of the accuser? Slavid continues, “There is no policy because this is a new sociological tool.” A tool for what? Human control? Keeping undergraduates safe is one thing, virtual/amateur/omnipresent policing is quite another.

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