StudCo doesn't like it Juicy

At their first meeting tonight, the newly-elected Student Council passed a bill denouncing Juicy Campus, a gossip site that allows anyone to post anything with complete anonymity. The full bill text is at the bottom of the post, but here's the main things the bill does:

• "Formally condemns the University community’s involvement with and participation in sustaining" the site
  
• Council will ask Facebook to stop displaying ads for Juicy Campus
  
• Council will ask Juicy Campus to stop using the University's name (like Facebook, it organizes by college)
• Urges students to boycott the site

The bill passed with only two abstentions, but the debate over it lasted quite a while. Most Council members supported the resolution, which was sponsored by College Rep. Sam Davies. They offered a variety of rationales, most of which touched on the damage the site does both to the community's sense of "honor" and to the individuals who get written about on the site. Davies spoke extensively on his resolution, lamenting at one point that if possible he would have included a provision banning the site from the UVa network, an option he said UVa administrators quickly ruled out.

But Transfer Rep. Jason Goldstein objected that simply condemning a site where people say objectionable things marked "a very dangerous precedent to set" in terms of infringing on free speech. He added, "This is a deeper problem than just a web site," arguing that as long as people want to log on and say these things, Council can't do much about it. Trevor Dobson, a fourth year who spoke at the beginning of the meeting, took a similar view, asking members to carefully consider freedom of speech issues and whether anonymous comments on a non-searchable web site are legitimate harms to be worried about.

Many members agreed with the characterizations of VPA John Nelson and now-Rep Body Chair Katie Lee (she was elected later in the meeting), who said that Council had to do something because the Cav Daily ran a story in Tuesday's paper talking about how Council would spearhead the issue.

But does the bill really do anything at all? It seems clear at the outset that the 2nd and 3rd clauses making polite requests of Facebook and Juicy Campus will go nowhere. Supporters in that Tuesday article noted that Google had stopped using Juicy Campus ads, but somehow I doubt Council has Google's clout. And the first clause, which received surprisingly little attention, seems to condemn students for just going to the site even if they don't post anything, as multiple supporters made the case that "going to the site is promoting the site." That seems quite a bit too strong for doing nothing but satisfying curiosity, as many students will undoubtedly do when they see news of this bill.

That leaves only the boycott, which of course is completely voluntary. People may decide they consider the web site trashy and juvenile, but I doubt that Council's prodding will move them to make that judgment any faster than they would on their own.

It seems to me that Council found something they felt strongly about but then got themselves stuck out on a limb before realizing they couldn't do much about it (they sent a press release to the Cav Daily on Monday). I think it's worth keeping an eye on this issue since I seem to hear more about it every day, but I have a hard time seeing much coming from this resolution.


Here's the full text of the resolution passed by Council:

Whereas the website www.juicycampus.com promotes anonymous verbal slandering of individual students and student groups at the University of Virginia,

Whereas many of the comments made on www.juicycampus.com are insensitive and maliciously targeted at University students and student groups,

Whereas all messages posted on www.juicycampus.com are made public information, and are accessible to any person with access to the Internet,

Whereas many messages posted on www.juicycampus.com are in no way conducive to the principles of honor and dignity upon which the University of Virginia was founded,

Be it therefore resolved that the University of Virginia Student Council formally condemns the University community’s involvement with and participation in sustaining the website www.juicycampus.com,

Be it further resolved that the University of Virginia Student Council will formally urge the website www.facebook.com to discontinue advertising for www.juicycampus.com at the nearest possible juncture,

Be it further resolved that the University of Virginia Student Council will formally urge the website juicycampus.com to immediately disassociate the University’s name with its website,

Be it further resolved that the University of Virginia Student Council encourages the Student Body at large to boycott usage of the website www.juicycampus.com.