As many have noticed or been directed to, an anonymous website recently made some allegations about me that I'd like to respond to, largely because these comments, set forth as facts, are largely devoid of truth. This entry should document my actions related to this site as of today's posting date.
As the President of the Associated Students of Whittier College, I have a sworn obligation to defend and promote the rights and interests of the students at Whittier College. Students have a right to privacy and a right to control the pictures they take and post to their personal web pages. They are private individuals attending a private school, and their attendance at an institution does not make them in any way legitimate targets for public criticism. Therefore, I pursued a course of action which sought to protect the rights and interests of the students I represent, including the employment of copyright law to protect students' individual copyrights and the notification to various entities of abuse of their systems. In response, the individual behind Whittiergate.com has targeted me for attack, not to seek justice for some perceived wrong, but, in my opinion, to silence those who disagree with him and
actively seek to protect students' interests.
There are a number of criticisms of Whittier College that I wholeheartedly agree with, have voiced, and support the further voicing of. Most of the contents of WhittierGate.com, however, serve only to fulfill a personal vendetta, and are likely the creation of someone who has never attended Whittier College and has been banned from campus for allegedly violating College policy. For the most part, the site is a hard copy of the infamous Whittier rumor mill, to the extreme, using innuendo and misconstrued 'facts' to advance, well... who knows?
Purported Violations of Whittier College PoliciesI am in good standing in all aspects at Whittier College and have been since my return to the school several years ago. I did leave the school after having been suspended for poor grades and a violation of the school's policies. Whittier College does indeed enforce its policies, often rigorously, and I learned that the hard way.
Since my return nearly three years ago, I have never been written up, charged, or convicted of any violation of the institution's policies (not because the school looked the other way, but because I haven't violated any school policies), I have made Dean's List, and successfully brought the Sachsen Society back to on-campus status, ending decades of hazing and alcohol violations (during which John Lewis had long-since disassociated himself from the Sachsens -- he has been an irreplacable aid in ending these abuses). I have become elected President of the student body on a platform of expanding and defending student rights, critically examining school policies (and the student government) and making recommendations for change. many of these prescriptions, by the way, will be posted here when I publish the State Of The ASWC Report. To say that I hold these rules and policies in "contempt", that I "chronically violate" them is to grossly and negligently assail my character and reputation.
Alcohol: I am of age and have been for the vast majority of my time at Whittier College. No pictures posted at Whittiergate or anywhere else depict me drinking in "my" dorm room (contrary to the author's claims) because I haven't had a dorm room since May of 2002. What's more is that the students I am pictured drinking with are all -- surprise -- over the age of 21. Yes, I drink, and I drink responsibly and legally.
Science building: It's an inside joke. It never happened.
"Girly-man photo": Again, it's a joke. I pledged Ionian little brothers: we held hands in a line and sang a song back and forth with the Ionians. It was fun. Somebody cropped a photo to make it look like I was holding hands with my friend Justin, then put a heart around it. Hilarious. And, of course, an easy tool for someone to make what I perceive to be homophobic remarks.
My relationship with Nicola and KatrinaI have never engaged in any kind of relationship or adult activity with either Katrina nor Nicola Jagessar. The implication that I had a "threesome" with them is likely the result of an inside joke between a few of us, as an ex-girlfriend was convinced (wrongly) that I had an interest in Katrina, and she already despised Nicola. This joke didn't even start until after Katrina had moved to Europe and Nicola had moved several timezones away. The quotes on WhittierGate.com are out of context and negligently mischaracterized. "We'll spare you the gruesome details of this Jagessar-Ryback-Steinbaugh threesome, in which Steinbaugh played only a diminutive role." There are no details because there can be no details to something that never happened.
MySpace.comWhittierGate.com purported at one time that I abused my position at MySpace.com to delete a "Friends of Whittiergate" account that was being used to send messages to Whittier students. It now reads: "whittiergate.com is informed that a former employee of MySpace, who is also at Whittier College and a member of the Sachsen Society, and a friend of older individuals of concern in Whittier College societies and other activities, may have influenced that company to wrongly delete a Friends of Whittiergate.com profile / account. whittiergate.com's investigating this report."
I have not been employed at MySpace in about a year and did not at any time use my position there to do anything related to this profile. Following standard internet protocol, I emailed abuse@myspace.com and informed them that the profile was in violation of several
MySpace policies, including "
unsolicited mass mailing" and linking to an external website ("provides any telephone numbers, street addresses, last names, URLs or email addresses"). This was handled by someone I've never met and do not know. MySpace, in its sole discretion, deleted the account. If there are questions as to that company's actions, they should be directed to MySpace.
Finally, "Any attempt to get this website offline by false representations will result in legal consequences for such party/parties, most certainly including Adam Steinbaugh."
I acted only in regard to photos that I have documentation showing that I own the rights to them. I have no made any "false representations" and I regret the insinuation that I have done so. While I will gladly point out to the host of the site that I believe the site may be in violation of that company's policies, my main intent is to allow students to control what they own.
That said, should the author of Whittiergate read this post, I call upon him/her to correct the record by posting a retraction and apology for those false statements and innuendos, most desirably by linking directly to this post.
And that's the last I'll say on this matter. I answer to the students of Whittier only, not to anonymous web sites. For further inquiries, please contact me at goodrev@gmail.com or via AIM: gudrev.
Regards,
Adam Steinbaugh
(Updated May 27, 2007)
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