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Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Alumnus Shares His Viewpoint
Perspectives on University of Miami's Student Blogger
By Franklin EinspruchI am a 1994 graduate of the University of Miami with a master's of fine arts in painting. I was dismayed to learn that Kyle Munzenrieder was removed from student housing for his blogging at Miamity.com.
Munzenrieder published a post that hyperlinked to a rap song that "included several males describing lewd sexual acts in detail, including group-sex references."
Some of the creators of the nine-minute song are current members of the UM football team and former UM housing residents. The post was picked up by ESPN, and bad publicity ensued.
Jerry Lewis, vice president of communications at UM, said that there is no connection between the Seventh Floor Crew rap-song issue and the student being removed from the dorm. He also stated that the student had used university property and its computer network to post highly inappropriate and explicit photographs and, as the student indicated in the story, he also posted a suicide note.
Munzenrieder already has explained to UM officials that the suicide note was a joke. Munzenrieder points out convincingly that had he violated UM's technology usage policies, he would have been subjected to a hearing as afforded by the school's student-rights policies.
Nothing of the sort took place.
The prospect that my alumni donation might go toward keeping one of the Seventh Floor Crew poet masters in kneepads leaves me extremely reluctant to give to the university. I remain grateful to Munzenrieder for his indifference to the cult of football and feel bad that UM was able to disrupt his academic career with such impunity.
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Posted by fm on December 06, 2005 at 12:37 AM