Michigan State U. Drops Spamming Complaint Against Student Leader

Michigan State University has dropped disciplinary proceedings against a student it
had accused of violating its e-mail policy by sending a message to hundreds of professors.

Kara Spencer, a junior who is chief of staff of Associated Students of Michigan State University, received an official warning from the university’s student-faculty judiciary late last fall after sending about 390 professors an e-mail message seeking their opinions on a university decision to change the academic calendar. The university concluded that Ms. Spencer had violated a policy regarding bulk e-mail which prohibits messages from being sent to more than 30 people. Ms. Spencer argued that the policy was being selectively enforced in violation of her speech rights. The university’s complaint against her says she refused to comply with the policy and demanded that charges be filed against her.

Ms. Spencer’s case attracted the attention of civil-liberties groups, 13 of which signed on to an open letter to the university’s president, Lou Anna K. Simon, calling for the e-mail policy to be abandoned and the guilty finding against her be reversed. Ms. Spencer appealed the decision against her.

In a terse letter sent to Ms. Spencer last week, Rick Shafer, associate director of the university’s judicial-affairs office, said the case against her has been withdrawn by the complainant.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which played a key role in rallying other advocacy groups to Ms. Spencer’s defense, cheered the university’s decision to drop the case in a statement issued today. The group complained, however, that the university has not dropped the e-mail policy Ms. Spencer was charged with violating, and said it would continue to keep pressure on the university until it does. —Peter Schmidt