Um… Perhaps Boing Boing referred to the Campus Reform story because Campus Reform broke the story?
The first link returned by your search is CNN’s story. I think you might want to quit wasting your time berating Boing Boing for its unwise choices and “exciting new ideological and stylistic direction”, because CNN refers quite prominently and directly to Campus Reform’s story, both on video and in print. I think it very likely that CNN has a much broader audience than BB, so it would probably be a good idea to persuade them to forego their “exciting new ideological and stylistic direction,” and then go after smaller fry like BB, eh?
Or it is just another BS online survey that they have to take in which they do some combination of lying and trying to get through the thing as fast as possible. It isn’t like they having a hart to hart discussion here.
To me, anyway, the thing sounds more like a way for Clemson’s administration to check off the box “prevented sexual assault” than a way to prevent sexual assault.
I doubt HIPAA applies, but IANAL. The objective (did anybody actually click through?) was not to get students to disclose their behavior - it was to have them reflect on their behavior. Too bad that wasn’t clear to the right-wing critics, who seem to think any effort to address sexual violence is an attempt at brainwashing.
Campusreform.org did indeed break the story, which is not to say they did all the reporting that’s been done on it. You’re perfectly welcome to your opinions about their objectivity and diligence, and so is BB.
For my part, I’m happy to admit I may be blinded by my ideology here. I’m a liberal, so if I see a website whose front page includes the following headlines…
Pro-life group’s work vandalized in Michigan
Florida State Univ. presidential candidate attacked for conservative values
VIDEO: Students sign petition urging Obama to support ISIS
University mascot wipes ass with College Republican handouts
Feminists decry ‘no belly, no butts, no bras’ dress code policy, accuse university of ‘slut-shaming’
Penn State removes Bibles from hotel rooms after atheists say they encourage ‘killing nonbelievers,’ gays
Feminists agitated by friendship posters on campus
Feminists rage over suggestion that alcohol education can help curb sexual assault
Feminist student claims Mormon university is slut-shaming students
UNC students protest ‘ladies’ night’ because…sexism
College Democrat leader compares Israel to Nazi Germany, Netanyahu to Genghis Khan
…I immediately start wondering if perhaps this site is an honest broker. I admit I’m even a bit more hesitant–perhaps unfairly!–when I see that it’s often favorably cited on redstate.org, or freerepublic.com, and that it’s produced by the Leadership Institute (“Training conservative activists, students, and leaders since 1979.”) So if it were me, this being about three subjects (education, privacy, and sexuality) where I don’t have much faith in the conservative viewpoint, I’d go with the reportage that followed from less ideological sources. E.g., Clemson’s local paper, which followed up with original reporting the next day.
But as I said, it’s BoingBoing’s call as to what they want to promote. If that’s “berating” anyone, I don’t mind “wasting my time” doing it.
Given that I strongly doubt that Boing Boing can be called a conservative site, given that the article was primarily concerned with the potential for privacy violations implicit in Clemson’s arrangements, given that most of the facts they reported are verifiable (that is, if you take the time and effort to do so, you can find out for yourself), given that GreenvilleOnline reported pretty much the same facts (with pretty much the same screenshots, after Campus Reform broke the story), given that CNN reported pretty much the same facts while referring to Campus Reform’s story without caveat, I can’t say I much care if Campus Reform is a far-right rag: I evaluate stories like this on their own merits. That means that I will take the bit of editorialising on rape and rape statistics at the end of the article cum grano salis - I’m well aware that many, very probably most, rapes aren’t reported.
I myself am a Canadian liberal - if you’re an American liberal, I’m pretty sure that you will nonetheless find yourself standing somewhat to the right of me on most issues. However, I have friends all across the political spectrum, and the one thing I’m finding that most of them have in common is worry about the ongoing erosion of privacy. The people they blame and the solutions they proffer may vary according to ideology, but they worry about the same… snooping. (Conversely, the people who are fine with personal data collection are also all over the ideological map.) How people stand on this issue doesn’t really split on right/left lines, and the Campus Reform article reflects that, as does the MSM followup.
I rather suspect that, when Rob chooses to link to a primary source, and this article is that, he expects people to use their critical faculties when reading the material. I’d be rather offended if he stuck to “approved sources” when something of interest is originating on the other side of the fence. I’ll be blunt: one of the biggest problems in the West as a whole right now is that of ideological echo chambers, whether left or right. These prevent one from actually seeing (or admitting) that there are rather major issues that cut right across ideological boundaries, and I’ll reiterate: worry about privacy and data collection is one of them.
You didn’t click around enough, CampusClarity comes from LawRoom, an employer-side HR legal services company. The Clemson administration spent tuition dollars to point this little piece of “know your enemy,” at their students for a little while. Maybe they got enough submissions to get a little edge negotiating their liability premiums.
It doesn’t matter if they decide to follow HIPAA guidelines, because HIPAA only applies to (and can only be enforced against) “covered entities” (health care providers, health plans, and health care clearinghouses) and “business associates” who process data and provide support on behalf of the covered entitites. Neither the University nor the poll administrator fall under the scope of HIPAA.
Linking to an article on a website does not even equal “promoting” that article, let alone the entire site. If I link to a YouTube video, it doesn’t mean I agree with and endorse every other video on YouTube and all associated comments.
OTOH, maybe a headline like “University mascot wipes ass with College Republican handouts” means that Campus Reform wholeheartedly defends this expression of free speech.
It’s nearly annoyingly impossible to find a picture of a deer under google images under a search for hart. They won, dammit. Hart fans are as pissed off as the Doge of Venice.
You know what does apply? The Common Rule for research on human subjects. That means, at a minimum, approval from an institutional review board (IRB). A quick web search did not turn up anything one way or the other about such approval. Lack of such approval is a serious ethics violation. An IRB would have the responsibility to make sure that data was truly anonymized. Lack of an opt-out does not seem like something an IRB would approve.
Clicked right through to the Lawroom site pretty quick. Not sure if there’s enough difference between an “employer-side HR legal services company” and a consulting outfit to slip a business card into the gap.
