At roughly 7:30 p.m. Monday evening, the popular cyber-forum site GrinnellPlans ceased operation and posted a notification citing a cease-and-desist notice as the reason for the suspension of service.
“GrinnellPlans, in accordance with a cease-and-desist notice, is suspended, effective Monday, December 15, 2008 at or around 7:30pm Central Time,” the posting read.
Plans Administrator Ian Atha ’09, who received the notice, would not comment on the source of the notice or the reasons behind it but in an e-mail to the S&B wrote that "The cause is not yet to be communicated, but it was not libel/slander.
Also, it was not about particular content, but about alleged
practices." He also said he is working with an attorney to resolve the issue and restore service to the site which he anticipated would be soon but said that, in the meantime, he is treading cautiously.
“My strategy is to be as careful as possible and make sure we don’t get into judicial legal trouble,” he said in an interview. “The homepage says we are complying with the [cease-and-desist] letter but that does not constitute admission of fact or practice.”
He cited a potential injunction and court fees as some of the more disruptive measures he hoped to avoid.
Atha said that he had received the notice because the site is hosted on a server he owns in Texas through The Planet, an information technology firm based in Houston, Tex.
Quickly following the suspension of service, rumors circulated among students on campus and on a discussion board hosted on the social networking site Facebook as to the source and motivation of the cease-and-desist notice. Posters speculated about whether or not a student submitted the notice while one alumnus even claimed responsibility, though there is no evidence to support any of the claims.
Many speculated that the cease-and-desist notice and the subsequent suspension of service might have come from members of the College administration. In the midst of recent student anxieties about recently hired Student Affairs employees, and the controversial departure of former Associate Dean and Director of Residence Life Sheree Andrews, the website had become a sounding board for student grievances about the administration. Without providing any specifics, Atha denied that the College administrators had sent the notice.
“It’s not Houston or Travis or RKO or anyone who works for the College,” he said. “I think the most important thing now is to not start groundless rumors. Plans will be back as soon as possible.”
While he said he could not provide a definite timeline for when the service might be restored, Atha said he did not expect the suspension to last beyond Saturday, when he would be leaving the country for the start of the College’s winter recess.
As a precaution, he said that he has signed over power of attorney to a lawyer in California who could then act on Atha’s behalf while he is out of the country.
The last time the site was shut down because of legal troubles was in 2005 when Paul Wainwright’07 posted statements that authorities said advocated violence against law enforcement officials. While the site had not been hosted by the College since 2003, College administrators asked Plans administrators to take down the cite pending an investigation.
--additional reporting by Ari Anisfeld
