"Keep it in your pants, Sewanee."

The email:
Keep it in your pants, Sewanee.
Acceptable ways to use a cell phone at Sewanee:
  1) In your dorm room or any other place where you have a reasonable expectation of privacy.
  2) While seated. By and large, only persons standing and walking are subject to the horrible inconvenience of civility afforded by the "Passing Hello."
If you're talking or texting on a cell phone could interfere with a "Passing Hello," find a bench or an empty room in which to detach yourself from Sewanee.
And don't forget to (gently) chide those who ignore this sacred Sewanee tradition with a forceful "Save Sewanee!" and a (condescending) smile.
Save Sewanee!
This has been the first of many courteous reminders from your friends at the Polk Society.
Keep Sewanee Right!

The student: Reed Tomlinson, c'10

The interview:

Of all the things that you could have said in this email that people thought was from Dean Larry Jones, why cell phones?

Well, that I guess has been the focus of the Polk Society. It's been about the traditions of Sewanee. Of course, it's difficult to speak of it as a focus, because this was the first big thing that we've done with the Polk Society.

I've yelled "Save Sewanee" three times at the same person in one day. Part of the reason I brought up "Save Sewanee" is that it needs to be talked about. Maybe it's not so valid anymore if your cell phone is your main means of communication, but at least now people are talking about it, deciding what kind of place "Save Sewanee" has on campus. I want it to continue. I like the Passing Hello, I think it's one of the best things that we have.

And you're referring to your version of the Polk Society as something completely separate from whatever other Polk Society may already exist?

Yes, it's totally different. I was kind of worried, though, as soon as I'd sent out the email that the real Polk Society might be one of those categories of benefactors-you know, you give a certain amount and you're the "Polk Society." I hadn't really researched it up to that point.

Did you use your capabilities as head RCC to send the cstudent?

Actually, it has nothing to do with my RCC position at all. I've since been let go from my RCC job, but nothing that I did to send out this email was in any way related to the RCC program except that I was using a computer. Anyone who knows...[UNDISCLOSABLE INFORMATION ABOUT CRACKING THE SQUIRREL MAIL SERVER.] The only reason I've been let go is that certain people in the IT department have been convinced that my "trust piggy bank" has been broken and can't be repaired.

Can you give us a timeline for this whole operation?

I figured out I could do this last year, but I didn't know how I should use my power. I wanted it to be something benevolent because I thought that I might get caught. So when I came back to Seawnee this year, the amount of people on their cell phones made me realize that I could actually say something about that.

Why use Dean Jones' email address?

It could have been anybody, actually. It can be anyone who has the ability to send out a cstudent.

And the fact that I could do this knowing very, very little about mail servers and only knowing how to make very simple PHP pages is very worrisome. I could pretend to be a student emailing another student, I could be a student emailing a dean, a dean or professor emailing a student, anything. I could pretend to be anybody emailing anybody else. Luckily I used this for very benevolent means, but I hope and I think ITS has plugged the security hole.

But in retrospect, I probably shouldn't have chosen [to send an email from] the guy who's the head of the honor council. But, he had a great sense of humor about it, actually. We had a meeting afterwards and we laughed about it, and he was really great about it. I apologized, he accepted the apology. Now that it's over, it was a good decision [to use Dean Jones' email address over someone else's]. But in hindsight it was probably a very dumb thing to do.

So no more messages?

No, I have no plans to send out another message. You can put that in the paper. But I am hoping that they will plug this unreasonably large security gap, because it's not productive for an educational institution.