Service on the University central mail server slowed dramatically yesterday after a mysterious e-mail was sent to 750 undergraduates Tuesday night. The e-mail offered the students a "high University honor" and inspired rampant speculation yesterday in the form of dozens of reply e-mails sent to all recipients of the original posting.
Mid-afternoon yesterday, ITC's home page reported: "The mail router is experiencing abnormally high loads." The swell of e-mails resulted in a two-hour delay in e-mail delivery through the central hub, ITC Network Systems Manager Robin Ruggaber said.
Advertisements compounded the havoc, as an unidentified source used the computing IDs listed in the original message to send ads to University students.
The original e-mail, which asked recipients to drop off their resumes at East Lawn room 24 for consideration, was signed by a University student and appeared to come from her e-mail account. The request was dated Oct. 21 and said the deadline for applications was Oct. 23, but the message did not arrive in inboxes until Tuesday.
However, ITC officials said the e-mail appeared to be sent from outside the University server and they are currently investigating the source.
"The closing signature was of a student from the University, but that doesn't mean that she sent the e-mail -- she may not be involved at all," Ruggaber said. "E-mail can be easily forged -- whoever's sending this can easily obscure the server they're sending it from, the account they're sending it from."
The student whose name appeared in the signature could not be reached for comment.
If the author of the original message is a University student, he or she could face consequences including loss of computing privileges and possible suspension or expulsion for misusing the University computing network by sending what ITC considers a chain e-mail, according to officials.
Although ITC is investigating outside sources and suspects a forgery, a note on the door of the Lawn room designated for resume drop-off referred to the original e-mail sender by name and said cryptically that member selection already had occurred.
The e-mail was reminiscent of similar messages sent earlier this year requesting that students deliver resumes to various Lawn rooms. But the past e-mails did not cause the server problems that Tuesday's message did. The system clog primarily was due to the massive number of e-mails replying to the original, Ruggaber said.
Students responded to the original message with wary excitement, near paranoia and most of all, curiosity.
In the wake of the Jefferson Area Drug Task Force secret society ruse earlier this month, some students worried the e-mail was part of an investigation.
"Now that we know these secret societies have been used in non-University ways, it makes me wary to accept any invitations to anything or appear at anything for fear of what's behind it," third-year College student Sharon Goertz said. "Especially with the new Patriot Act and people watching your every move, and on top of that, the JADE thing, it's like, uh, no, I'm not going to show up anywhere."
JADE Task Force Coordinator Lt. Don Campbell denied that the task force was in any way associated with the e-mail.
"I can confirm it's not from us," Campbell said.
The University also has no knowledge of the honor mentioned in the e-mail, University spokesperson Carol Wood said.
Despite the numerous doubts expressed, many students said they believed the message was legitimate.
One anonymous recipient said she successfully entered an honor society as a result of a similar e-mail earlier this month. She said she understood other recipients' worries but was sure of the message's legitimacy.
"It was past the due date, which threw people into a lot of confusion," she said. "From what I could tell, it was the first time a lot of people had received such an e-mail, so I can understand why they were confused."
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