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Student suspended after controversial Web posts

By Elena Chin

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Published: Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Updated: Sunday, July 19, 2009

A student sued the university on Aug. 1 for a violation of his First Amendment rights because the school suspended him from classes and banned him from campus for his Web site.

Maciej Murakowski, a would-be junior, said he was suspended because he used the university's server to host his personal Web site. The site had received three complaints since November 2005, he said.

On one page of his Web site, Murakowski, a chemical engineering student, wrote descriptions of sex moves and positions, such as The Emo, where you "shake and cry whenever your partner touches you" and The Sociopath, where you give a woman a hot bath and massage, "then set her on fire."

David Finger, Murakowski's lawyer, said the university never told Murakowski to remove the Web site from its server after the first two complaints.

Murakowski has since moved his Web site to an independent server.

Cynthia Cummings, associate vice president of campus life, contacted Murakowski's father after the third complaint and told him Murakowski had to be removed from the university that night, Murakowski said.

He said the next day, he had a meeting with Cummings and she said he had to take a psychological exam to determine whether he was a potential threat.

Cummings was unable to be reached for comment.

University officials declined to comment.

Murakowski said he had a disciplinary hearing on May 2 with Judicial Affairs. They determined he was to be suspended from classes and banned from campus until the end of the year. After that time period, Murakowski will need to be readmitted to the university.

He said he is unsure whether he will be accepted to the university. If he is not readmitted, then he does not know if any other university would accept him into its program with this incident on his disciplinary record.

Murakowski said he lost his job with the university's engineering department because he is no longer allowed on campus. If he was readmitted to the university after this year, he said he will have lost a year of school.

"It's basically turned my summer to shit," Murakowski said.

Finger said if Murakowski wins the lawsuit, there will be several consequences.

"The university's actions will be declared unconstitutional," Finger said. "It will be expunged from his record and he will receive the damages he is entitled to because he lost his school job."

Murakowski asks his readers for support on his Web site.

"If you love my writing, please support me in this," he says. "If you hate me and everything I stand for, but love freedom, please support me in this. If you hate both me and freedom, you may be more comfortable here."

The last word in the last sentence links to the American Nazi Web site.

Murakowski also asks visitors of his Web site to e-mail Cummings on his behalf, but to do so with respect.

Jennifer Lambe, a communications professor at the university, said she thinks there are two issues concerning the lawsuit. She said the university has every right to make him take the Web site off its server, but the question of whether he should be suspended is a different matter.

"It's an open legal question," Lambe said. "But I can understand their motivation to do it in the wake of the Virginia Tech incident. They're being extra-careful."

Freshman Christine Holm said the university should have told Murakowski to take his Web site off its server after the first two complaints.

"I think they went a little too far, too fast," Holm said.

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