University dean accidentally hits the ‘reply all’ button

Justice apologized for sending a private eMail to the entire graduate student body.

Higher-education faculty and administrators got another lesson in the pitfalls of electronic communication and viral eMail messages last week when a University of Missouri dean mistakenly sent a message that referred to a student as suffering from “mental distress” to the campus’s 6,000 graduate students.

Graduate School Dean George Justice responded to an eMail message Oct. 13 about a Missouri student who had decided to withdraw from a graduate program, and instead of sending the message only to Chancellor Brady Deaton, Justice used the “reply all” function and sent it to every Missouri graduate student.

The student, who had withdrawn from the university, originally addressed her message to the graduate student body. No students received her message, however, because she wasn’t authorized to send a message to the entire list, Justice said in a follow-up explanation for the accidental “reply all.”…Read More

NYC school official caught spying on co-workers’ eMail

A Harlem associate principal for technology is accused of high-tech spying on colleagues in an incident allegedly motivated by jealousy, reports WABC-TV. The New York City schools investigator says the associate principal secretly read eMail messages of several principals and a school superintendent using computer spyware. He says it was all motivated by a love triangle. The allegations involve Milciades Pepin, an associate principal for technology at three high schools: Randolph High School, Manhattan Center for Science and Math, and the Unity Center for Urban Technologies. The school’s principals were his alleged targets. “He was opening their eMails. He was sending eMails in their name that were fictitious. He was erasing eMails that were meant to be sent to people. At one point, he even sent an eMail to the chancellor,” said investigator Richard Condon. Investigators say the principals relied on Pepin, giving him their cell phones and having him fix problems with their computers over the last two years. He allegedly hacked into their eMail accounts, both public and private. Investigators say they discovered Pepin was using “FlexISpy” Software to access the accounts, which they claim he had gotten for then Manhattan High School Superintendent Francesca Pena. During the course of the probe, investigators say they learned Pepin and Pena were also involved romantically. Pena has since resigned…

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