UNC Removes Offensive Link From Web Site

Assistant University Editor

Just days after the Freshman Focus Council launched its premiere Web site for first-year students, questions of vulgar content within the site already have surfaced.

A link to mulletsgalore.com on Freshman Central was removed Sunday after speculation that the link's content might paint an inaccurate representation of student life at UNC.

Freshman Central, a site geared toward first-year students and incoming freshmen, attempts to encapsulate University culture and to aid students in the transition into college life.

But mulletsgalore.com is a tongue-in-cheek site aiming to poke fun at the short-on-top, long-in-the-back hairstyle that is stereotypically linked to particular lower-class lifestyles.

The site's frequent graphic and pervasive sexual innuendo and adult content, along with its links to sites featuring animal pornography, has gained it a large student following.

Rebekah Burford, co-coordinator of Freshman Central, said the link was removed because mulletsgalore.com's content had the potential to cause concern among the student body.

"The Web site we constructed is for all students here, and if any students feel it is too vulgar, we don't want them to feel that way," she said.

The link was placed on Freshman Central's "Links of the Week" page, advertising a must-see Web site to students, along with a link to Student Health Service.

"The whole idea behind Link of the Week is to have one humorous link and one educational link. Our humorous link is something that's sort of enjoyable to students," she said.

But Burford said mulletsgalore.com was not explored thoroughly enough before it was posted on the freshman site. "We screened through it and didn't find anything ridiculously out there," she said.

As for the sites linked from mulletsgalore.com, Burford said students should not associate the content of those pages with UNC or the council's Web site.

"It was not put up there to create any ill will," she said. "Any type of joke that is on (mulletsgalore.com) -- we're not saying that's reflecting UNC at all ... it's just a fun link."

Burford said she had not received any complaints about the link, but said if students were concerned they should utilize the Freshman Focus site to direct their displeasure. "We'll do our best to ensure this kind of thing doesn't happen anymore," she said.

Jeanne Smythe, director of ATN computer policy, said it is difficult for the University to be a watchdog for potential inappropriate material on student groups' Web sites.

"While the campus postmaster assists in enforcing appropriate use of electronic communication, I'm sure you can appreciate that with tens of thousands of Web pages which are currently changing ... we do not always know about the appropriateness of a particular page or link until it is called to our attention."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.