The Reporter

Wednesday, September 24, 1997 > FORUM: Students, professors react to language letter^ 4a Volume 110, Issue 5 1 {-"Hews! igfj r Forum Life \ [j ^ ; Sports^ 4-"5a^ http://the-reporter.home.ml.org 1 ', -$^W®|fe- Orlando's artsMall: a great place for local artists to show their work. Life, page 1b Stetson University, DeLand, Florida ~m Residential Life Two town hall meetings on the issue were held last week in Emily Hall By ANDY DEHNART Editor-in-Chief Emily Hall may soon become the first residence hall on campus to allow full-time visitation by members of the opposite sex. The second of two "town hall" meetings was held last week on Wednesday. The meetings served to gauge resident response Residents of Emily Hall will be surveyed to see if they are "in favor or opposed" to moving to the 24/7 visitation policy, Director of Residential Life Michelle Espinosa said. Twenty-one people attended the meeting; 220 residents live in the predominately upper-class hall. Only four residents attended the first meeting last Monday because of an error on signs advertising it. Moving to 24/7 visitation "is not that scary of a change for us," Espinosa told the residents. "If we do move to 24/7, the hope would be [that the change would occur] next month or maybe in November," she said. Accommodating those residents not in favor of the plan is high on the list of Espinosa's concernsm. Espinosa said residents with concerns should "identify them selves." She invites "anyone who is opposed or concerned to see me individually or as a group." Residential Life will "respect the right of those who prefer the current visitation policy," and make "accommodations for the majority or minority," Espinosa said. Espinosa said that another problem is "the difference between visitation and cohabitation." The current policy prohibiting overnight guests for more than three consecutive nights will be enforced. Additionally, parents are "certainly a constituency that we need to answer to," Espinosa said. Safety is also a concern. The escort policy would have to become "a stronger part of the community agreement," Espinosa said. Espinosa told the residents that the final decision will be made by a combination of herself, Emily Hall residents, Assistant Director of Residential Life Michael Almeida, Director of Student Judicial Affairs Lynne Gentile, Vice President for Campus Life Jim Beasley, and President H. Douglas Lee. Following the survey, a few more town hall meetings will be conducted, Espinosa said. Photo by Paul Davis CARIBBEAN CLUB: Deidre Jacobs talks with a local woman at the Caribbean Club's car wash Saturday. The car wash was held at the Orange City Wal-Mart as a fundraiser for the group. © y As the world becomes more electroni c, the security of informa tion avail able online is rapidly becoming a concern, And college campuses and networks are often at the center of the debate. <| LJ L-"—\>\ From April to June, 101 student Social Security numbers, along with students' names and payments to the school's health department, were posted online at the State University of New York. A University of New Mexico professor posted test scores along with Social Security numbers, minus the two middle digits. iPersonal information An increasing amount of information is now available. Searches for students on Stetson's web page only reveals the full name, e. mail address, and web page address of Stetson students. Other schools give more information. The University of Central Florida, for example, displays students' names, e.mail addresses, home address and phone number. Much of the information available online was available before, but has been consolidated and made more accessible. Services like WorldPages (http:// www.worldpages.com) allow searches for addresses and phone numbers. The free service also draws a map identifying the location of a home or building. Most services offer to remove information at the request of an individual. E.mail/Internet Tracking By ANDY DEHNART : Editor-in-Chief As the Internet's World Wide Web grows, technology designed to make access more personal may actually infringe upon privacy rights. From "cookies" (files stored on your computer that web pages use to "remember" who you are) to actual logs of web page visits, it is technologically possible to follow a web user's every move. Kelly Kannon, a member of CIT's senior staff, said that tracking of students online and monitoring of e.mail "absolutely does not" occur at Stetson. "We don't play big brother," she said. u "V\ <-~v w If— y*> Z> The only people monitored are the system administrators, Kannon said. "We track privileged users—the system administrators—but never students." The reason for the implementation of the Novell accounts in the computer labs is to grant "special privileges or permission for individuals" to use particular software programs and applications, not to track users. A student lab assistant, who spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed that CIT does not monitor student Internet usage. The student said that some of the university's systems—like the new Novell accounts—may be insecure and possibly vulnerable to unauthorized access. CIT is aware of the problems, the student said. E.mail is "the most secure" of the systems on campus, the lab assistant said. Freedom of speech online has recently. been challenged by the Telecommunications Act, which was passed by Congress last year. The law includes provisions prohibiting "indecent" material. It was challenged and the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the law was unconstitutional. The Stetson WWW Publishing Code of Conduct says that student and faculty home pages should be "published in an ethical manner that is consistent with the generally accepted decorum of civic and academic discourse." Pages will be dealt with on a case-by- case basis, Kannon said, if a problem arises. Overall security Janlori Goldman of the Center for Democracy and Technology told USA TODAY in August that "The danger of the Internet now is the illusion of anonymity that's completely false," Goldman said. "People think they're invisible." uasa^aaKJasa^MSEg: By JEFF HAMRICK News Editor Two of the nation's largest producers of admissions testing books, and study guides are currently engaged in a court battle over false and misleading advertising. Kaplan Educational Centers has filed suit against The Princeton Review—which controls nearly 50 percent of the SAT software market, according to a spokesperson—in a U.S. District Court, alleging false advertising , on software and books. Kaplan is arguing that The Princeton Review has refused to correct the cover of its book, "Cracking the GMAT CAT" (1998 edition). The book states that it contains four computer-adaptive tests on CD-ROM. According to Kaplan, the book has only one test. The book recently went on sale in July, and there are still 60,000 copies of the books on store shelves across the nation. The Princeton Review responded by calling the Kaplan lawsuit "absurd" but acknowledged that "mistakes" had been made in some of its promotional material. The Princeton Re view claims that it was already in the process of correcting those mistakes. Andy Rosen, chief operating office of Kaplan, argued that the lawsuit was not an "attempt to close them [The Princeton Review] out of the market." In a telephone interview he stated that "It's simply false advertising. Worse, it's blatantly misleading." The lawsuit also charges The Princeton Review with refusing to correct false claims on the box containing its software to help students prepare for the SAT and the ACT. Kaplan's lawsuit cites two of The Princeton Review's business partners, Random House (the book publisher) and Mindscape, Inc. (a software publisher) as additional defendants. There are three places on the cover of "Cracking the GMAT CAT" that contain text indicating the existence of an enclosed CD- ROM with four computer-adaptive tests. Kaplan has insisted that there are over 60,000 of these books on store shelves. The Stetson University bookstore does not carry any of the contested products. According to Rosen, Kaplan noticed the mislabeled products last week when it received calls from Princeton Review customers who wanted to know if Kaplan's products had any competitive features. According to U-Wire, The Princeton Review claims that it noticed the errors weeks before Kaplan filed suits. The Princeton Review has said that there are corrected versions of the book and software at the printers and that they should be on the shelves by next month. Rosen, though, is not satisfied with this action. "What do you do with the 40,000 prod- ucts that are out there right now?" said Rosen. As of Friday, Rosen said that the Princeton Review had agreed in court not to ship any more of its misleading products. Rosen said that Kaplan will still fight to have the current inventories of educational materials removed or corrected with stickers containing only correct information. Kaplan Educational Centers and The Princeton Review are the two major competitors in a national market worth $300 to $400 million dollars a year, according to Rosen. But Kaplan isn't the only company to recently file suit against The Princeton Re view. The Virginia-based Graduate Management Admission Council, which sponsors the GMAT, filed a similar lawsuit against The Princeton review, Random House, and the author Geoffrey Martz earlier this month in federal court. The law suit alleges that The Princeton Review published a GMAT preparation book, written by Martz, which unlawfully used the GMAT's black-cat trademark for the CAT, or computer-adaptive test, on the book's cover. Hostility between Kaplan and The Princeton Review is nothing new, according to many in the industry. According to Rosen, both Kaplan and The Princeton Review have sued each other on multiple occasions for claiming false or misleading success rates for their preparation materials. President and CEO Peter Hegener of Peterson's said that "We've been in the business long enough to know that [they] have been threatening each other for years, but nothing ever happened until now." Hegener also said that "We all have a responsibility not to exaggerate our advertis ing. We are trying to convince the public that what we have is a good product and...[we] shouldn't misrepresent anything." Rosen stated that Kaplan has an independent agency, like Price Waterhouse, conduct frequent analyses of the success rate of its testing materials. "We [Kaplan] would never engage in false advertisement," said Rosen. ."The Princeton Review is simply less rigorous in their review process," -said Rosen. "Student and customers can count on the claims made [by Kaplan]. We firmly believe that, if accurately informed, both students and customers will choose us." Kaplan, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Washington Post Company, is a New York- based test-preparation company that competes directly with The Princeton Review. Kaplan's lawsuit also seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. Lawyers for The Princeton Review and Kaplan are negotiating to settle the lawsuit, said the council's lawyer, Mr. Cowan. If the negotiations fail, a preliminary hearing has been set for September 26,1997. inside JFORUM: Should the Wal-Mart Supercenter be built?, 5a LIFE: Sammy Hagar rocks the new House of Blues at Downtown Disney, 1b SPORTS: Women's soccer team loses to Florida ASM 3-2 in overtime, 6b