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.