The status in question
Photo: from TheFire.org
We’ve all been warned against posting those photos from Monday night at the Keg on Facebook, for fear that an employer or interviewer for potential internships would scout you out—but to what degree do we have to fear the watchful eye of the University Police?
Joseph Dozier, a junior majoring in Political Science at the University of Chicago, thought it would be alright posting what he believed to be a funny dream he had as a status update on Dec. 6. “Dreamt that I assassinated John Mearsheimer [a political science professor at UChicago] for a secret Israeli organization—there was a hidden closet w/ Nazi paraphernalia. Haha! 
” In an interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education, Dozier explained that the humorous aspect of the dream regarded the professor’s book The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, which suggests that a lobby of pro-Israeli forces have shaped U.S policy in the past. Dozier said that the post was making fun of critics who say the book is anti-Semitic, as well as continuing an inside joke among Dozier’s friends that the professor possesses an imposing, German look.
Much to his astonishment, the next day Dozier received a call from one of UChicago’s Police Department Investigators and had to insist that he never intended for his status to be perceived as a threat. Apparently, according to the investigator, “It is the UCPD’s job to monitor for potential comments that may be threatening to those who are a part of the university community. We’re just doing out job when we investigate them.”
NU has had it’s own share of Facebook issues. In 2005, several groups created by Medill students, such as “”Editing and Writing Made my Quarter Hell” and “I Was Raped by my Medill Midterm,” were flagged by Professor Michele Weldon, the Medill professor in charge of Editing and Writing. She said they were possibly being libelous. While this is small compared to what happened to Dozier, it does shed light that there really is no policy regarding what schools look at in the public domain of social networks. Dozier took his story to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a non-profit group that seeks to protect the individual liberties of students in colleges and universities. FIRE claims that Dozier was censored by being asked to remove the post, but Dozier simply wants to know UChicago’s policy on monitoring student activities online. While NU doesn’t have a coded policy either, it seems the only way to check if University Police is keeping tabs on students Facebooks would be to a post a controversial status intentionally—and that just may be too risky to try.
[The Fire]
Screen Capture of Tex Dozier’s Facebook Page [The Fire]
Transcript: Investigator Martinez (UCPD) & Joseph Dozier [The Fire]
U. of Chicago Student Questions University’s Reaction to Facebook Post [The Chronicle of Higher Education]
Michele Weldon is a lunatic. She’s constantly worried about her image. When a few students called her out on her teaching techniques, she left them angry voice messages. When David Spett accused the Dean of possible forgery, she told the media that he’s just a student with a “history of publishing his dissatisfaction with his professors.” And now this Facebook stuff?
Get with it, Michele. Or go see a psychiatrist. People she avoid her classes until she finds her sanity.
Weldon is a great professor and I think the only thing that is obvious from this story is that the writer, and this Web site, both have an unnecessary Weldon bias.
And Weldon aside, this post was pure drivel.