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Before the former White House Chief of Staff Andy Card visited the University of Massachusetts, every member of the English department, including student English majors and professors, opened their e-mail accounts to read a letter promoting a protest to be held at the lecture itself. This mass e-mail was sent from a UMass student.
According to UMass' Office of Information Technologies (OIT), mass emailing to a major is password-protected and for administrator use only. But somehow, two e-mails were sent explaining the protest's details, along with two other e-mails claiming that the previous two were "mistakes."
The first e-mail was sent on Sunday, April 8 at 4:39 p.m. to all English majors and professors by UMass senior Mark Gallagher.
The e-mail stated, "Massive demonstration at Andy Card lecture, Wednesday, April
11, at 11 a.m. in the Student Union Ballroom."
Another e-mail was sent several minutes later in which Gallagher apologized for the previous message, stating, "Sorry, that message about the Protest planned at the Former Bush White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card was intended for UMass Amherst Students for Peace. Sorry again about the mix-up."
Gallagher then sent another e-mail three days later on Wednesday, April 11, stating something akin to the first, followed by another apology e-mail. According to OIT, it was impossible for Gallagher to mass email English majors without an administrator password.
"I think you have to be added in from an administrator. An administrator would have to un-moderate you in order for you to send out the mailing list," said a representative at OIT. "The student that sent out the email must have been un-moderated by someone."
Gallagher, however, said that his e-mailing was the result of an accident.
"I meant to send out an e-mail to UMass Students for Peace," he said, "I accidentally sent the announcement about the demonstration to the English major list-serve. The English department has a mailing list to communicate items of interest to students in the major and it is available to all English majors - there's no password involved."
According to Colleen Wetzel of the Undergraduate English department, "Through an oversight, this student was able to access the English e-mail list, but this has since been corrected." In mass e-mailing all UMass English majors, Gallagher received some responses from English majors.
"Only a few people were annoyed by my political e-mail, including an undergrad who called me a 'hippy,'" said Gallagher.
Gallagher also received responses from the UMass Assistant Dean of Students.
"I was contacted the day before the demonstration by Dean Eileen
Stewart, who wanted to talk about the plans for a protest. I told her mine weren't the only organization planning on protesting, and we weren't in communication with each other about such activities," said Gallagher.
According to Dean Stewart, mass e-mailing can occur based upon request.
"The decision to provide addresses is made by the Registrar in consultation with the Dean of Students, HR Division, Vice Chancellor for A&F, Provost, etc. whichever is the appropriate office," she said. "The list of addressees is determined by the request." Dean Stewart also noted that students are frequently granted access to the mass e-mailing system for various organizations.
"In addition, many groups on campus, like RSOs have list-serves which they can access to send messages," she said.
Gallagher was not punished for the e-mails.
"I let Dean Stewart know that I planned on a peaceful, respectful protest and she let me know that the University's main concern was for everyone's safety. Also, she expressed the University's support for us to exercise our rights and freedom of speech," said Gallagher.
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