The Week

Tragedy of Manners

Back when the main venues for anonymous expression were the walls of bathroom stalls, the pain any single insult could cause was limited, no matter how vile or vicious the message itself. For one thing, chances that the insulted party would see the put-down could be fairly small, unless the perpetrator went to the trouble of copying it to multiple stalls in multiple bathrooms. Even then, it could usually be seen by no more than half of the fifth grade, let’s say, unless the perpetrator took on at least one accomplice of the opposite sex. Anyway, everyone understood bathroom-stall graffiti to be the handiwork of lowlifes.

The Internet, alas, has made such rudeness much more public. First newspapers allowed anonymous comments on articles, arguing that at the end of the day it would be impossible to verify that people really were who they claimed to be. No doubt some few brilliant insights that were offered as anonymous comments otherwise would not have been, but also — I certainly hope I’m not exaggerating here — trolls came out from under their bridges all around the world. No amount of asking people to treat each other with respect, it seems, can overcome in everyone the impulse to say something snarky behind someone else’s back if the opportunity presents itself.

Then, to make matters much, much worse, some smart people realized that there was web traffic to be had — and maybe profit to be made — by offering slick sites on which anonymous observations were not sideshows but the main attraction. People were only too happy to contribute, especially within college communities. And just like on cable-news channels, the more outrageous the posts, the more attention they drew — a lesson not lost on anyone.

Over the years several anonymous campus-gossip sites have popped up, including the now-defunct JuicyCampus and the now-popular Yik Yak, but the effects have been more or less the same: Many people thought they were harmless, but some were hurt and hurt badly. Calls for colleges to rein such sites in have bumped up against both the technical difficulties of trying to do so and the notion that the authors of the First Amendment intended it to offer absolute protection for even the most pernicious kinds of speech.

Last week, though, 72 women’s and civil-rights groups banded together and asked the Education Department to pressure colleges to clamp down on anonymous sites, Yik Yak in particular. Under federal law, the groups said in a letter to the department, colleges “have a legal obligation to remediate harassment, whether in-person or online, that creates a hostile environment.” Harassment on sites like Yik Yak has become “a significant problem” for women and people of color, the groups said, citing surveys and news articles.

And the department’s Office for Civil Rights may be taking the group’s message to heart. A lawyer working with the groups, Debra S. Katz, said the office had agreed to investigate whether the University of Mary Washington, a public institution in Virginia, had violated federal law by failing to protect students from online harassment and by retaliating against those who complained. (The president, Richard V. Hurley, said in June that allegations raised in a Title IX complaint against the university were “irresponsible.”)

A Yik Yak spokeswoman, Hilary McQuaide, said that the company takes the problem seriously and that encouraging “a positive, constructive, and supportive community environment on Yik Yak is a top area of focus for us.” It remains to be seen, though, how well such an effort might succeed in a society in which even many adults, left to their own devices, would probably behave no better than the average fifth-grader. As H.L. Mencken put it, accurately enough: “Conscience is the inner voice that warns us somebody may be looking.” (Read more here.)

Fair Use, Cont.

Google’s claim that the fair-use provisions of copyright law permit it to scan the full texts of books freely has been upheld by a federal appeals court, marking the latest victory for the company in the law-running challenge filed in 2005 by the Authors Guild.

The guild has claimed that Google, by making “unauthorized digital editions of nearly all of the world’s valuable copyright-protected literature” and finding ways to profit from those digital copies, had far exceeded the “fair” aspect of fair use. But two years ago, Judge Denny Chin of the U.S. District Court in Manhattan disagreed, saying the scanning project “provides significant public benefits” without adversely impacting the copyright holders.

Whether the appeals-court ruling will bring the case to a close is not yet clear, since the Authors Guild’s executive director, Mary Rasenberger, released a statement saying, in part, “We trust that the Supreme Court will see fit to correct the Second Circuit’s reductive understanding of fair use, and to recognize Google’s seizure of property as a serious threat to writers and their livelihoods.”

Online Disappointment

The University of Florida has been disappointed by enrollment in a big online-only degree program to which state legislators committed $35 million two years ago. The program was meant to be a cheaper alternative to on-campus instruction, but so far it has attracted only about 1,500 students.

One consequence of the low numbers: The university is canceling what was to have been an 11-year contract with the publishing giant Pearson at the end of this year. Pearson was hired to create online content, handle marketing, and help manage enrollment and retention.

Plus There’s All This

The National Labor Relations Board voted last week to reconsider a ruling by the director of its New York region against graduate students at the New School seeking to form a union. The vote suggests that the board may be willing to overturn a 2004 precedent that has prevented graduate students from unionizing at private institutions nationwide. … The Board of Trustees of the College of DuPage has fired its president, Robert L. Breuder, citing extensive evidence of “misconduct and mismanagement.” By voiding his contract, the community college’s board avoids having to pay a $763,000 severance package the president negotiated with an earlier set of board members. … The U.S. Education Department has put additional restrictions on ITT Educational Services Inc., the big for-profit college company, after finding that it had failed to reconcile federal student-aid accounts promptly and otherwise neglected its financial obligations. (Read more here.)

Sure Thing

Dollar for dollar and press release for press release, it’s hard to think of a college learning experience that has had more enthusiastic participation — or a higher profile — than the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon. Every other year upwards of a dozen teams compete, some representing multiple institutions and all including dozens of undergraduates and graduate students who bring a wide variety of skills to the challenge of creating a working house powered entirely by sunlight.

This year’s competition, held in Irvine, Calif., was won by a team of more than 30 students from the Stevens Institute of Technology, in New Jersey. Their entry was called the Sure House, taking the “su” from “sustainable” and the “re” from “resilient,” but best of all playing off the idea that students were creating a house that could be put up on the Jersey shore and withstand the increasingly brutal storms that a changing climate will throw at it.

The $290,000 house has a compact two-bedroom design but can be opened up to take advantage of additional outdoor space in good weather. Extra-rugged photovoltaic panels cover shutters that provide shade in good weather but seal the house tightly in storms. The house is designed to function relatively comfortably if the power grid goes down — and it even includes exterior USB ports so neighbors can plug in their cellphones to recharge.

Lawrence Biemiller writes about a variety of usual and unusual higher-education topics. Reach him at lawrence.biemiller@chronicle.com.