Student, a little too spam-sensitive, tries an attack on Brown

Students protest used to take the form of sit-ins and picketing, but when a student wants to raise a ruckus these days, spam about is fair play. Inside Higher Ed reports:

It started when Brown University officials sent out an email message asking Wesleyan University students to go to a Web page and fill out a survey on academic advising. Sophomore Isaac Levy was not happy that spam from Brown was filtering over onto his campus's listserv for students.

"I am extremely pissed at how much Wesleyan spams students. Brown University has started us sending us solicitations for surveys. I don't care if the survey is for a good cause — I don't want the emails."

After complaining to listserv administrators, he asked to be taken off the list. But, as spam goes, he got a second email. Levy decided to take the matter in to his own spam and posted a 4MB image of Connecticut's laws on unsolicited e-mails on his homepage and encouraged students to email the file to Robert Shaw, Brown's executive associate dean. Shaw's name and email address had appeared on the survey emailed to Wesleyan students.

"Copy and paste it for all I care," Levy advised students. "Or send a blank e-mail w/ a large attachment. Just make sure he gets lots of large files."

Unfortunately for Levy, this is not a protest that students are rallying around.

“I got three e-mails from students complaining,” Shaw said of students at Wesleyan. Shaw added that the campaign to try and spam Brown apparently did not take off “or our spam filter is catching it.” He added that the study is in its second year and “is going quite well.”