And this is why you don't post stupid shit on facebook.,,
An SIUE student is facing disciplinary action after creating a controversial Facebook group discussing his sexual relations with another student.
Sophomore Mike Turk said he will meet with Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Jim Klenke at 1 p.m. Tuesday to discuss possible disciplinary action from the university.
The hearing follows a complaint filed against Turk by a student who wishes to remain anonymous.
Klenke declined comment Monday, citing university policy and federal law which prohibits him from discussing the situation.
The student has alleged that Turk created a group on Facebook that she felt slandered her name.
The group specifically named the student as allegedly having sexual contact with members of the group.
"I'm sorry it had to be this way, but this is my name," she said. "(The disciplinary hearing) wasn't my intention. I was just wanting something done about this group, not for him to get kicked out of school. My main intention was to get the page offline."
Turk said the group was "just a bunch of friends joking around and it escalated from there into something it shouldn't have."
The female student felt differently.
"I never considered it a joke because it was never funny to me," she said. "One thing that really bothers me is that everyone thinks it's hilarious. People have committed suicide over issues like this. Thank goodness I have a good support group. What if they would have gotten a hold of a girl with no self-esteem. What would she do?"
She said she went first to the university police, who then referred her to the administration.
"They said it really was more of a civil thing because it's not really harassment since he wasn't leaving me messages," she said.
Turk said he didn't know anything was wrong until he was notified of the hearing.
"I got a letter (sent to my parent's house) saying I was up for expulsion ... for slandering a student and causing mental pain to somebody else," Turk said.
"I really don't have a defense - I mean, I did it," he added. "I'll plead my case to stay, maybe write a formal apology or do something."
He added that while he was responsible for the group, he did not feel expulsion should be a potential consequence.
"I don't think anything I put up on the Internet should be held accountable for real world things like education," Turk said. "I don't think they should be able to prosecute you for things like that. I guess it really could turn into a legal matter."
Through its student conduct code, the university maintains the right to discipline students for off-campus conduct.
According to the student conduct code, the university maintains jurisdiction over actions occurring off-campus if "the student's conduct substantially interferes with the mission of the university including but not limited to, interference with the educational pursuits of its students, faculty or staff."
Further, "behavior or conduct which poses a threat to the mental, emotional or physical well-being of self or others," is considered grounds for discipline from the school.
Turk said he created the controversial group in early September. The group was a global one, meaning anyone with a Facebook membership could see it.
The group was removed from Facebook within 24 hours of its creation.
"I basically made the group and went to bed," Turk said. "When I woke up, it had been removed.
"She (the student) thought it was a joke at first," he said. "This was not a huge dilemma, not many people saw this group. It was supposed to be for a few people."
He said Monday that the student was a member of the original group. She joined the group and left a funny comment," Turk said. "I'm sorry she didn't take it as a joke. We were friends."
The female student said she joined the group to gain access to the discussion board.
"You couldn't see what they were posting on a message board unless you were a member of the group," she said. "I left a message saying 'haha, really funny guys' and then left.
"I just thought, you guys are slandering my name and something should be done."
After Facebook removed the group from the site, Turk created a second group with the same name.
"He remade the group, which is what really pushed me over the edge," the female student said. "That's whenever it really got bad for me."
Turk said although the second group was probably what got him into trouble, he did not feel he received fair warning that his actions were considered harassment.
"I felt that if she actually had a problem with it, she could have told me first," Turk said. "No effort was made to contact me, no attempt to talk to me or anything."
The student said she did not make any attempts to contact him for personal reasons.
"Honestly, I didn't want to talk to him at all," she said. "I hadn't talked to him in like two months. It came out of nowhere. I guess I wasn't really considering us friends."
Turk said that if he were expelled, he would probably sue the school.
Turk's situation is not unique. Students at other universities have been expelled for involvement in Facebook groups before.
In November 2005, Fisher College sophomore Cameron Walker was expelled for his membership in a group about a campus police officer with a reputation for harassing students. Walker was president of the Student Government Association at the school at the time of his expulsion.
The private liberal arts college in Boston expelled Walker for violating the harassment and computer policies of the school's student conduct code.
"I had bad judgment, but I did not deserve to be expelled," Walker said in other media. "I clarified that the Facebook group was a joke ... but (Fisher administrators) chose to take it seriously anyway. They chose to make it an issue when it didn't really have to be."
Students' support of Turk is evident in the cyber-world. At press time, a Facebook group created to keep Turk in school boasted more than 1,000 members nationwide.
There's 700 (members) now and it's still going up," Turk said Saturday. "It's only been up for a day-and-a-half and it's completely nationwide. There are people who have no idea who I am that are fighting for the cause."
Sophomore Jeffrey McKinney Jr. said he created the group to support Turk in a case that he feels the university is using to make a point.
"I think what's going on is that SIUE is trying to make an example," McKinney said. "They're just trying to make themselves look better. Everyone else that I've talked to thinks it's ridiculous and they understand that SIUE is just trying to make a point and that it's not about what happened.
"It seems like a waste to throw someone with so much potential out of school," he added.
McKinney said some students in the group were planning to picket and protest Tuesday at the university.
"We're talking with a number of other people to make a petition and have it signed by a majority of the campus and present it to the dean," McKinney said.
T-shirts were made available for sale on the group's Web site Sunday. A post on the site said 10 percent of the sales of the shirts would go toward "a Michael C. Turk Defense Fund/Party Fund."
Turk said he did not know what to expect from his friends' support.
"My friends are crazy, so that could be ... well, they're crazy," he said. "I don't have anything to do with it."
The female student said she hopes students think more about their actions online as a result of the incident.
"I don't understand, I'll never understand," she said. "Use common sense. It's going to hurt someone's feelings."