keast@dalcs.UUCP (Pat Keast) (05/29/84)
On May 20th., a news item of a particularly disgusting nature was sent out from the dalcs site, for which the system manager has sent an apology over the Net. The apology was intended to express regrets for this misuse of the Net, and for any offense to people reading the news. Someone illegally appropriated accounts on the machine, and used these to send obscene messages both over the local net, and over net.general. The passwords to these accounts were changed as soon as the problem was noticed, in order to prevent access by the person involved. As an administrator in the Department in which the machine is situated, I wish to make a statement disassociating the Department and the University from the message. The references to Dr. Buckley have no basis in fact, and are at most the unsupported opinions of one individual. The whole matter is now in the hands of the Vice-President(Academic), and is being treated as a serious breach of Academic Discipline. We are close to being able to identify the person, and when we do he or she will face the full force of the University's Disciplinary Procedures. Dr. Buckley's reputation, among those who know him in many research and teaching institutions throughout the world, has been left undamaged. Unfortunately, the harm to him, among people who do not know him, may be incalculable. Our hope is that, by this note, we will be able to undo some of the damage, and reassure the outside world that we have a first class faculty, including Dr. Buckley, and that the contents of the message sent last week are in no way a reflection of Dr. Buckley's standing in the academic community of Dalhousie. Patrick Keast, Acting Director, Computing Science.