The College's e-mail system shut down for about two hours last Thursday, when a student sent "The Weekend Blitz" to thousands of students -- an incident that may have violated the College's computing code.
The message -- which listed the weekend's campus events in a manner similar to the three-year old "Weekend Update" -- originated on campus, left the Dartmouth network and then re-entered from an off-campus server, according to Kiewit Network Expert Steve Campbell.
The computing code discourages sending unsolicited e-mail to a large number of people.
Computing Services Director Bill Brawley said Kiewit has investigated the incident and spoken with the student who sent the message.
Brawley said the student will not face disciplinary action.
"In this particular incident, it was more appropriate to show them how to use the system the right way" than to take disciplinary action, he said.
Brawley said even students who use off-campus e-mail accounts are expected to obey the computing code.
"If we can confirm the person as being part of the Dartmouth community, it's under our jurisdiction," Brawley said.
Graham Gunst '99, the student who compiles the "Weekend Update" every week, said the BlitzMail shutdown delayed his message several hours.
"I didn't send my blitz out until a few hours after I received the 'Weekend Blitz' because of the crash," he said.
Graham said his blitz does not cause the system to crash because of the way he sends it out.
"The way I send it out, it does put a little bit of a strain on the system, but it doesn't actually crash it because I send it out in sections."
