Oberlin senior Shibo Xu launched this site at Amherst on the advice of a friend, who “thought it would be interesting.” Well, it has proven that Amherst students, given a chance to express their darkest views without being held accountable, will enthusiastically sink to the depths of cowardice and vulgarity. With scores of students wounded by the Confessional, it is time for the administration to put an end to this farce. The Information Technology Department must block the Web site.
As a student newspaper, we are naturally leery of any check against free speech on campus. We are wary of setting a precedent for restricting student access to information on the Web. However, we hardly think that blocking sites like the Confessional, which seems to exist solely to provide a venue for anonymous character assassination, presages an era of draconian censorship at Amherst. The administration is generally protective of free expression, and recognizes that it has no right to abridge it, except in extreme cases.
Amherst Confessional represents such a unique situation. Because of its slanderous and disruptive content, it may not hide behind the protection of free access to expression. According to the school honor code, we recognize that our individual rights are contingent upon the common responsibility to protect other members of the community. This includes the expectation that students be held accountable for their comments, allowing those victimized by false accusations or spurious insults to face their accuser. However, Amherst Confessional denies that right to the victims of its smear campaigns. In an e-mail interview with The Student, Xu discussed the nearly untraceable nature of the posts, meaning he obviously allows students to calumniate their classmates with impunity. Patently, a Web site that enables students to unaccountably attack each other based on characteristics such as race, gender and political views is in gross violation of the honor code, which specifically forbids verbal abuse based on those characteristics and others. Blocking such a site, which flouts the code and disrupts the College’s social and academic functioning while using the College’s name, is completely within the administration’s prerogative.
Moreover, Amherst Confessional lacks even the barest of redeeming qualities to militate against its censorship. It isn’t therapeutic, like confessing to a psychologist or religious figure. It’s hard to feel better when your heartfelt confessions of sexual misadventures, suicidal thoughts or other personal matters gets you called a slut or encouraged to kill yourself. The Confessional does not inform students of available campus resources, like the Jolt does. No, all Amherst Confessional provides for its posters is a healthy dose of mockery from their fellow students.
It’s clear what Amherst Confessional is. It’s a forum for cowardly, libelous attacks that are in violation of the honor code. It allows wiseacres to meet heartfelt admissions with scorn and ridicule. At Bard College at Simon’s Rock, a similar Web site even became a sounding board for threats against a professor’s family. In short, in brings out the worst in college students. The administration has every right to block this Web site. Being, responsible for the well-being of the students who live here, it has every responsibility to do so, as well.