USC Aiken launches email investigation, students react
A mass email thread involving potential hate crime messages spurred USC Aiken officials to launch an “investigation” into the nature of the emails.
Thursday, April 16, at 9:59 p.m., a mass email was sent out by junior business major, Giuseppe Cimino, to hundreds of students asking for them to participate in a survey on university services.
Students responding to the survey used the “reply all” function, effectively sending their confirmation of participation to everybody in the original message.
Within minutes, hundreds of emails began pouring into USC Aiken’s email system.
By 12:08 a.m., a total of 250 emails had been sent, just over two hours after the initial email.
The final number of emails, with the last one on Friday at 9:31 a.m., brought the total number to nearly 400.
Initially, students responded to the email chain with mixed emotions, some with humor and others with hostility.
“Next caller!! Next caller!! ‘Cause this ain’t [sic] it!,” wrote Micah Mathis.
Chrysta Stevenson wrote “I don’t mind it cause [sic] it’s not like I have anything else to do … It’s entertaining to me cause [sic] I’m not trying to sleep and I’m stuck at home bored but I understand some people have to wake up early and that may be detrimental to them.”
“Thank GOD for the Do Not Disturb on the outlook app,” wrote Darius Ross.
Some students within the thread sent images, social media handles and entire movie scripts over the email.
Andrew Holmes noted that the incident was the “funniest and most engaging thing I’ve gotten out of college and now I’ve made at least 75 new acquaintances on social media due to infinity of ‘reply all’ emails.”
Kaylee Brown wrote that “It’s like a train wreck. Part of me is like make it stop and the other part is like this is kinda [sic] funny.”
Alaine Sullivan addressed the issue in a Facebook post on the USCA Student Life page.
“It’s [the emails] infiltration and fiery demise, that is. I will admit some things are hilarious, but please everyone… the obscene language, memes and use of profanity on the university’s address could cause problems for those that do it.”
Sullivan finished her address with “PLEASE be mindful.”
Allegations of sexual misconduct, obscene language and usage of racist memes and epithets were soon reported within the emails.
Angel Lance addressed these reports in a Facebook post. “It’s one thing to send funny pictures but to the people being racist and dropping the N word and racist jokes is unacceptable.”
In an interview with Giuseppe Cimono, the original sender, he stated that he would have “never expected something like this, but I have to say people really showed themselves for who they really are. Today we’ve seen people with no respect, people who needed attention, who felt lonely; and again, people who were bothered by this and others who wanted to bother.”
Cimono stated that at first he found the emails humorous, but not after the influx of messages continued to pour in.
“I think we can learn a lot from this, myself included,” he wrote.
Along with the emails, a GroupMe chat was created, involving a number of students.
The content of the GroupeMe chats appeared to have an escalation in racist, antisemitic, sexist and obscene messages and images.
Kelli Richardson responded to these messages on the Student Life page in a post reading, “Why is it 2020 and there are people making light of horrendous situations that have happened in history?”
Julia Evans, a student leader, posted on Facebook with the same sentiment as Richardson.
“I can’t even begin to explain to you how much this disheartens me, how this hurts me, and as a student leader how this bothers me, just knowing I have interacted with these people and just for them to think that racial comments and … memes were OK & [sic] proceed with their actions has me heated.”
Ernest Pringle, CIO and vice chancellor for information technology, provided a statement regarding the emails, its contents and how to avoid the issue in the future: “When using emails, we all need to be vigilant and respectful, not only in the content included in the messages but in the volume of emails we send to one another.”
“During normal operations, we receive a great number of emails, but since we transitioned to modified operations, the number and frequency of emails in our inboxes have increased.”
Pringle suggested using the BCC field when sending to a distribution list or changing the default reply settings in Outlook.
Regarding the nature of the emails, the university released a statement from the chancellor, addressing both the messages and the GroupMe chat.
“The university is currently investigating an incident which started with what appears to be an email message to students about a business survey. That email appears to have prompted REPLY ALL responses, some containing inappropriate language. A GROUP ME (SIC) chat was created, and inappropriate comments were shared there.”
The statement continued stating that “it may not be illegal to send hate messages in the United States, but it is reprehensible, offensive to the university community, and does not reflect our institutional environment nor our values.”
“At a time when this nation is facing a pandemic and some individuals are feeling isolated and afraid, we should be doing everything in our power to support one another.”
The message concluded by stating an investigation was in process and appropriate actions would be taken.
Image courtesy of Sarah Gohagan, USCA Student Life Facebook page.
