The Facebook restricted a profile created by the Student Labor Action Coalition criticizing Chancellor John Wiley for his stance on an anti-sweatshop proposal, according to UW-Madison sophomore and SLAC member John Bruning. Bruning said that those from SLAC who were working on the profile were unable to edit it.
'The people that were working on it said they couldn't log in anymore,' he said. 'It said that the account was suspended.'
In a Nov. 18 Facebook posting, Bruning addressed the profile's suspension. 'This profile was suspended because someone (a scared administrator) complained,' he wrote.
No formal complaint has yet been filed against SLAC at UW-Madison, according to Yvonne Fangmeyer, who works in the Student Organization Office.
Fangmeyer said she was unsure as to whether SLAC's construction of the profile had violated student organization policies, because investigation does not take place until a complaint is on file with the SOO.
'There would have to be an investigation to really see if any level of misrepresentation comes to a level where it's a violation,' Fangmeyer said.
A complaint can come from a student, staff or faculty member, administrator or Madison community member. The complaint would need to list what points of the Student Organization Code of Conduct were believed to be violated. If a possible violation existed, the matter would move to a committee, Fangmeyer said.
According to Associated Students of Madison Judiciary Chair Nick Fox, it is unlikely that SLAC's organization status could be revoked.
'There are very, very few cases in the Student Judiciary regarding actual student organizations to where a possible remedy would be revoking status or something like that,' Fox said.
The account was registered to the e-mail address 'jb@uwalumni.com.' Bruning said the 'jb' in the e-mail address referred to his initials.
But Bruning said he wanted to make it clear he was not solely responsible for the profile and its contents.
'Several people have access to the e-mail account and have access to the profile, just to diffuse personal responsibility, just so one person's not responsible for it,' Bruning said. 'I don't really want to be labeled as being responsible for it either, I guess.'
He also said his uwalumni.com account was not retained with making the mock profile in mind.
'The e-mail account was registered over a year ago,' he said.
Bruning said he has tried to remain unaffiliated with the profile because he also sits on the university's Labor Licensing Policy Committee, which advises the chancellor about sweatshop policy.
'Several people have more diplomatic roles with the university,' Bruning said. 'We don't want to be out personally attacking the chancellor when we're also meeting with him.'
