thing about elected office is, you can *leave* it. or so one is led to expect.

[fox]

E-mail waiting for me when I return to my computer after dinner just now:

Subject:  Inappropriate use of my personal e-mail address
From:  [a student in my college whom I've never heard of]
Date:  5:58 pm
To:  [me]

I am extremely angry to have my college email address abused and have complained to the Master.  My college email is not to be used for sending unsolicited political propaganda under the guise of a 'social' message from the common room mailing list.  I did not want to receive this political invective - in no way does the content of the said email relate to my membership of St Cross, my studies at the university nor my social life as a member of the college or university.  A proper mailing list for political persuasion would be a relevant society of the university.  I have asked the Master to look into this incident and have asked for assurance that I shall not be subjected to such communications in the future.

[signed]

----- Forwarded message from [another student whose name I don't recognize] -----

From:  [aswnIdr]
To:  collegename_social@maillist.etc.
Subject: [CollegeName_Social] Important!
Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2006 19:33:05 +0100

Please take a moment of your time to check this website that depicts what is really happening in Lebanon; something that you will not see on CNN or any other foreign channels.

> > [link redacted] (copy and paste it if you need to)

I must warn you there are some pretty strong pictures, so refrain yourselves from watching the video if you are too sensitive.

The following is a message from a friend of mine in Lebanon explaining to me what is going on (an insider's view),  "did u know that they're throwing phosphate on some villages. that not only causes breathe difficulties, but also burns people! did u also know that the israeli military is having kids write on the missiles  "to the children of lebanon" can u believe that! the goverment even has pamphlets in the country saying "donate 1 dollar to kill an Arab!"

Thank you for your time,
[aswnIdr]

---------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have any questions or comments, please email [Son of a Preacher Man]

To unsubscribe, e-mail: [address]
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----- End of forwarded message from [another student whose name I don't recognize] -----

-- [sig file from the first person]

Sigh.

Well, I mean, what could I do?  As it happens, I also find the forwarded message inappropriate for a college mailing list -- but the thing is, the risk of getting loads of that sort of message is prominent among the reasons I was never on the social mailing list, even during my term as president.  It is not, as my correspondent seethes, 'the common room mailing list'.  The social list is an unmoderated, optional-membership list for chatter and discussion.  The common room mailing list is a mandatory-membership list to which only a few people can post -- the Bursar and some related college staff and a few (but not all) student committee members.  Had someone sent me the above message about Lebanon for distribution on the common room mailing list, I would not have posted it.

And in any event, I'm not the student president, so the relevance to me of the angry person's having complained to the Master is unclear.  Nevertheless, I replied, quite calmly, I thought:

Subject: Re: Inappropriate use of my personal e-mail address
From: [me]
Date: 7:54 pm
To: [a student in my college whom I've never heard of], [Master], [B from Downstairs], [Son of a Preacher Man], [new student president]

Hi asimcwInho --

I'm sorry to hear about this.  I'm not at [college] any more at all, and wasn't a member of the social mailing list when I was, but I expect what you'll find from the Master and others is that the social list is not an official [college] list and you are therefore free to opt out of it at any time -- or to register your complaint with its maintainers, which I believe are still [Son of a Preacher Man] ([e-mail address]) and [B from Downstairs] ([e-mail address]).  (I may be mistaken about [SoaPM] and [BfD]; they may have passed control of that list on to the current social secretaries -- like I said, I've never been a member of the social list, so I'm not sure about that.)  My understanding is that all members of the social list have posting access and the thing is unregulated (which is among the reasons I never joined it) -- it is not at all the same as the junior members' mailing list, access to which is controlled and on which the message you quote would certainly never have been posted.

I've cc'd the Master and [SoaPM] and [BfD] on this, and also [New Student President], who took over from me as student president on 1 July of this year.  Hope this message has been helpful.

regards
[me]

One hopes this will also inspire B from Downstairs to update the blasted website to reflect that I am no longer The One Who Takes Your Complaints.  [wry smile]