Senders of unwanted E-mail lose University account privileges

Being the recipient of repeated, unwanted mail can be difficult, time consuming, and frustrating. But such offenses are not uncommon.

Ten University access accounts have been suspended in the last six months, for violating University E-mail policy, said Kathy Kimball, University Computer Network and Information Security Officer. Part of Kimball's job is to suspend accounts if a user violates a policy or if a user's access account is being accessed by anyone besides the user.

Detailed files of these suspensions are not kept, Kimball said. After an account is suspended, she schedules an interview with the user to try to clear up the problem. Kimball can then reinstate the account if she deems the misuse is understood. The names of the offenders are often buried in long-forgotten files, Kimball said.

Mathematics Research Assistant Gary Morella, was one of those people to have his University access account suspended, said Bill Mahon, director of public information. His account was reinstated last week.

As of Jan. 24, Morella's E-mail account was temporarily suspended. Morella's account was suspended due to the fact that people he E-mailed requested that he discontinue writing them.

When Morella continued writing, some recipients reported the problem to the Center for Academic Computing. The center E-mailed Morella, telling him that if he did not cease writing to those recipients, his E-mail account would be revoked.

Morella once again E-mailed some of these people, Mahon said. His user account was then suspended. This event attracted the attention of the Communicant, a local Christian newspaper.

Morella had no comment on the matter except that his account was suspended and he met with Kimball last week.

Morella's E-mail offense was in violation of University Policy AD20, Computer and Network Security. Under the policy, E-mail which is continually sent to a recipient who asks it to stop is considered harassment.

Morella met Kimball for his appointment for re-instatement at 10:30 a.m., Wednesday, Feb. 5, Morella said. The only other person in attendance was the assistant director of his laboratory.

"I recommended that the account be restored," Kimball said. "It was a question of clarifying policy and I believe it has been clarified."

The user account was to be reinstated Thurs., Feb. 6, Kimball said. She said she had no reason to believe that Morella would violate the policy again.

Timothy Hare, Class of 1970, was one person who was glad to hear that Morella's account had been suspended. Hare wrote a letter in The Daily Collegian last semester regarding the value and benefits of gay-friendly groups on college campuses.

The day after the column was published, Hare received an E-mail message from Morella in which Morella asserted his view of homosexual behavior.

"It was a lot of anti-gay propaganda, a lot of religious, political extremist stuff," Hare said.

Hare returned the message to Morella. Hare also forwarded the message to the Penn State Webmaster, which posts information on the Internet about the University, the Committee on Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Equity and the Office for Educational Equity.

Morella sent another E-mail to Hare, which Hare also returned. When Morella continued to send E-mail to Hare, Hare returned it all marked "returned, unread," Hare said.

The duration of this E-mail volleyball lasted one day, after which Hare never heard from Morella again.

The use of a University access account to send this "hateful" E-mail was what disturbed Hare the most about the day.

"I couldn't believe that this was coming from a publicly-supported institution," Hare said. "You can't do that when the people you're bashing are protected under the umbrella of diversity at Penn State. I'm ashamed that dollars, even a penny, would be used for this anti-Christian junk."

Another recipient was Dale Masel (graduate-industrial engineering), who was a recipient of repeated E-mail from Morella after asking him to stop. Masel wrote two letters to the Centre Daily Times, both of which were followed by E-mails from Morella denouncing homosexuals.

Masel did not respond to the first message, but he asked Morella to stop E-mailing him after the second message.

That was the last of it until Masel wrote a letter to The Daily Collegian several weeks ago. After the letter ran, Morella once again E-mailed Masel more anti-gay material, Masel said.

Masel passed the repeated offense onto the Office for Educational Equity, which passed the E-mail on to the Center for Academic Computing.

Masel had little response to the re-instatement of Morella's E-mail.

"If he's not going to abuse it, I guess that's fine," Masel said. "I respect his right to disagree with me. If he . . . understands the policy I have no argument with it being reinstated."