The Justice

Since Duke University alumnus Matt Ivester created it in 2007, the now-notorious Web site JuicyCampus.com has sparked controversy and outrage. At Brandeis, a Facebook group titled "Shut Down Juicy Campus at Brandeis" and an event last Tuesday in the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium have begun a student movement to have the administration ban the site from campus servers. While students should speak out against and avoid JuicyCampus.com, the administration should not block the site, and students should not urge the University to do so.

Much like last year's Gravity controversy, when students led the movement to hold the magazine accountable for its insensitive "Blackjerry" advertisement, students' calling for a ban on JuicyCampus risks condoning censorship on campus. Students encouraging administrative control of which pages students can and cannot view on Brandeis' network are encouraging a restriction of their First Amendment rights. Although it is unfortunate that some choose to exercise this right by spreading gossip, it is vital that students at Brandeis retain their right to do so. We are students at one of the most respected universities in the United States, and, like all other citizens of this country, we deserve the right to make our own decisions about how to use our voices, no matter how distasteful those decisions may be.

Brandeis University has championed itself as a place of dialogue and open discussion; students supporting a ban on JuicyCampus should reconsider how their support might restrict this philosophy. Instead of advocating blocking the site, students could simply speak to friends and peers about not posting and support students offended by their own mention on JuicyCampus. Keeping in mind that Library and Technology Services cannot ban access to the site off-campus, students should self-police at all locations in order to limit JuicyCampus' impact. Brandeis students can and should discourage use of the Web site without endorsing administrative paternalism or curbs on free speech.

Furthermore, according to LTS, the most visits the site ever received was about 200 per day, and site traffic from Brandeis has been declining since November. Though members of the Brandeis community have been negatively affected by posts on JuicyCampus, students should consider that the site is not a popular Brandeis attraction before endorsing as radical a position as the University's first ban on a Web site and curb on student speech.

This page advocates that Brandeis students continue to avoid reading or posting on JuicyCampus.com. We hope that the site will be shut down or converted to what Ivester says was its original purpose: spreading information about professors and campus goings-on. Students should guard their First Amendment rights by opposing a network ban of JuicyCampus and should use those rights by not using the site for gossip.

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