Far-right website continues to cover Imperialist issue

John Palmer Senior Editor

Names and contact information of four Vassar students were published on the Nationalist Socialist Movement website Overthrow.com on Feb. 7. The information comes in the form of three message board posts, and includes the reproduction of two articles and two letters to the editor from The Miscellany News, originally published on Oct. 14, 2005 (web-only) and in the Oct. 28, 2005 print issue.

One unnamed poster wrote, “Call [the students] and tell them what you think about their protests against this website.” The students’ contact information was written in a separate post.

Overthrow.com is run by Bill White, a self-described anti-semitic national socialist. On the website, the National Socialist Movement describes their party as the “the largest Nazi Party in the United States.”

Dean of the College J.J. Jackson was first alerted to the Internet posting early last week, when she received a call from a student who discovered it. Jackson then e-mailed the students listed and later spoke with two of them in person.

One of the students, Cushing House president Sophie Feintuch ’08, was also notified by someone from an anarchist organization who informed her that her phone number and address were published on White’s website. The anarchist was not calling to berate Feintuch, but instead to alert her to the fact that her name had been published.

Feintuch notified Vassar Student Association (VSA) President Rick Rodems ’06. Feintuch said that Dean of Students DB Brown and Jackson have “been really supportive,” and that there had been meetings with College administrators, Campus Security, and the Poughkeepsie police.
“I feel there are a lot of people lot of people looking out for us,” said Feintuch, adding that she was “surprised” that nearly six months after the articles were published in The Miscellany News, that they would be picked up now. “It seemed that The Imperialist issue dropped,” said Feintuch. “It didn’t seem that anyone would be following it.”

Vassar first attracted the attention of Overthrow.com in September 2005, when an anonymous article was posted on that Website about the protest of The Imperialist on campus. The re-printed Miscellany News articles covered the VSA’s de-authorization meeting of MICA, and students’ responses to one issue of the controversial publication The Imperialist. The Overthrow.com post in September named three Vassar students and characterized two of them with racial slurs. No other posts about Vassar were made until Feb.7 .

The three articles posted last week were set off by one post entitled “Vassar College and Overthrow.com.” The first post contains online links to two news articles and two letters to the editor published in The Miscellany News last October. The second of the three reproduces a press release written by Students Allied for Equity and Justice in early November. The third contains incomplete contact information for the four Vassar students.

Matt Ambrose ’07, President of the Moderate Independent Conservative Alliance (MICA) and one of the students listed on White’s website, said that he would not have been aware of the posting if Jackson had not contacted him. “It’s certainly unsettling,” said Ambrose. “I don’t know how credible the threat is.”

“I think raising a big stink and challenging Overthrow.com is what they want us to do,” he continued. “The only way to beat them is to deny them that attention.”
Neither Ambrose nor Feintuch have been contacted by anyone aligned with White’s site. The other two students did not comment.

The publishing of the students’ information and reproduction of the Miscellany News stories highlights the accessibility of students’ personal information in the public domain. Earlier this year, students expressed concerns to Jackson about anonymous postings on a public Internet message board site, known commonly as the Vassar gossip server. No legal action by the College has been taken against the server or Overthrow.com.

“We have spoken not only with our lawyers, but we sent the vice-president for [Computing and Information Services Bret Ingerman] to the owners of the sites. We can’t get any farther than asking them to take it down,” said Jackson of Overthrow.com. According to Jackson, the College as an institution is unable to take legal action on behalf of students against these websites.

“They own the site, and they set the terms,” said Jackson. “That’s why pursuing these sites is forced into the individual hands of those who have a gripe about it.” Jackson said that two of these students came to see her to discuss the matter.

“A lot of information in higher education is on the Internet,” said Jackson. “How the community responds to that kind of information is something we do have control of.”
Jackson said the best response to these Internet postings is to build a stonger sense of community at Vassar.

“It seems to me that human power is more important than legal power,” continued Jackson. “That is what we have to work on.”