The Vista Jan. 20, 2011

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Campus Quotes

101 Years of Broadway

UCOSA

Baseball

How do you feel about getting spam sent to your UCONNECT e-mail?

Broadway Tonight presents Neil Berg’s “101 Years of Broadway,” on Friday, Jan. 21.

UCOSA will host an open meeting tonight at 6:30 p.m. in Room 301 in the Nigh University Center.

UCO catcher Arrow Cunningham has caught the eye of new head coach Dax Leone.

JAN. 20, 2011 uco360.com twitter.com/uco360

THE VISTA

UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL OKLAHOMA’S student voice since 1903.

Campus News

EDMOND WATER IN THE CLEAR

PRESIDENT WEBB TO RETIRE

By Amy Stinnett

By Cody Bromley / Staff Writer After 14 years of serving as university president, UCO President W. Roger Webb announced Wednesday that he will be stepping down from his position. “With both joy and sadness, today I announce that my last day as president of this great university will be June 30, 2011,” Webb said in an e-mail to faculty and staff. Webb became UCO’s 19th president in 1997, took over the leadership role formerly held by past Oklahoma Gov. George Nigh. Before coming to UCO, Webb had been an adjunct member of UCO’s faculty and had served 19 years as president of Northeastern State University in Tahlequah. “I believe that today the strength of the UCO faculty and the depth of the talent in administration and staff of Central are the best they have ever been,” Webb said in the e-mail. In his time at UCO, Webb has been honored with awards and opportunities to serve on the board of directors of several organizations. In 1995, Webb was

Contributing Writer

The recent discovery of trace amounts of a known carcinogen, Chromium-6, in the water of more than 30 U.S. cities, including Norman, Okla., has prompted concerns of widespread contamination. Edmond, however, was not included on the list of cities contaminated by the element, Chromium-6, also known among scientists as hexavalent chromium, remains a bit of a mystery to those who have studied it. The metallic element can be found in nature, primarily in rocks and metal deposits, but also is commonly used in manufacturing. The sheen of the chrome on that Harley bike or that monster Hummer is chromium, said Cheryl B. Frech, a chemistry professor and chair of the chemistry department at UCO. “There’s been a lot of recent query about Chromium-6 because of this report that came out…from this group called the EWG, the Environmental Working Group,” Frech said. EWG’s website claims that, “our team of scientists, engineers, policy experts, lawyers and computer programmers pores over government data, legal documents, scientific studies and our own laboratory tests to expose threats to your health and the environment, and to find solutions. Our research brings to light unsettling facts that you have a right to know.” The advocacy group’s report was undertaken at the time the Environmental Protection Agency was considering whether or not to establish limits on Chromium-6 in municipal tap water.

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named to the Oklahoma Higher Education Hall of Fame and in 2009, the Edmond Chamber of Commerce named Webb the Citizen of the Year. A native of Heavener, Okla., Webb graduated from Heavener High School in 1959 before attending Oklahoma State University. In 1963, he graduated from OSU with a B.A. and also took a job working in the office of the secretary of the U.S. Senate in Washington D.C. In 1967, Webb returned to Oklahoma to get a Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Oklahoma College of Law. “We have seen incredible progress at this dynamic university over the past decade, and I will miss being a part of its future” Webb said in the e-mail. A successor for Webb has yet to be announced, but Webb said he is optimistic about his replacement. “I know that the university will be in good hands and will boldly move forward as a major urban university. I have the greatest confidence in the Regional University System of Oklahoma Board of Regents to choose a successor who will lead Central to new heights of excellence,” he said.

Spam

STUDENT DATA SIMPLE TO GET, EVEN EASIER TO EXPLOIT Spam e-mails amount for

81%

of all emails sent

Worldwide Worst Offenders for Spam

WEATHER TODAY

H 28° L 14°

Korea

Brazil

United States

India

Vietnam

1.8 million pieces of spam per day

3.2 million pieces of spam per day

6.2 million pieces of spam per day

2.7 million pieces of spam per day

1.7 million pieces of spam per day

TOMORROW H 43° L 24°

Source: Rackspace.com

By Cody Bromley / Staff Writer

More weather at www.uco360.com

DID YOU KNOW? Blueberry Jelly Bellies were created especially for Ronald Reagan.

Justin Wells’ UConnect inbox has turned into a played-out Monty Python sketch. Much like the “spam egg sausage and spam” from the skit, it has not got much spam, but he does not want any at all. Wells, a graduate student studying marriage and family therapy, along with the thousands of other UCO students who receive direct correspondence from the university via their student e-mail are finding an increasing amount of unsolicited advertisements in their inboxes. Since he came to UCO, Wells says that he has received more advertising e-mails in the last year that any other time, most of which he said were about textbook sellers at and around UCO. “I have actually replied to the business, as well as random vice presidents, trying to find out who’s in charge. In my e-mail, I would just state my disgust in the fact that they were selling my e-mail,” Wells said. He said he has received replies to those e-mails

from business claiming they did not want to send him an e-mail he did not want. “They said they would take me off, but even after follow-up e-mails I’m still getting e-mails from them,” he said. Dr. Cynthia Rolfe, vice president for Information Technology at UCO, said a student complaining about spam in their UCO inbox is not a new thing, but not common either. “We’ve had one or two people ask us about that, and we’ve tried to kind of investigate where it might be coming from,” Rolfe said. Rolfe said that her department has not quite got to the bottom of the problem yet, but that they themselves do not provide any personal information to vendors. But despite his best efforts to guard it, information like Wells’ e-mail address is actually shared openly and publicly with anyone who wants it. In the office of legal counsel at UCO, anyone can file a request and gain access to a large list of information

about any student of their choosing. The information available is made possible by the Oklahoma Open Records act, which states that, “If kept, statistical information not identified with a particular student and directory information shall be open for inspection and copying.” The ”directory information” data available on UCO students includes, but is not limited to: a student’s name, local and permanent address, e-mail address, telephone number(s), classification, dates of attendance at UCO, enrollment status (full-time, part-time, or less than part-time), major/ field of study / degree program, educational institutions previously attended, degrees and awards granted, educational background degree(s) held and date(s) granted and institutions granting such degree(s), date and place of birth, participation in officially recognized organizations, activities and sports, and weight and height of participants in officially recognized sports.

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