Video: “U Could Finish” Creator to Appeal Punishment
Beyond UCF, Business, Campus Beat, News, Student Orgs, UCF Administration — By Jake Rakoci on August 3, 2012 at 7:20 pm TweetTim Arnold talked with Knightnews.com about his recent punishment that he received from UCF Student Conduct for creating “U Could Finish,” an app that alerts students when there is an open seat in a class that the student is trying to get into.
Six days after Tim launched the site, it was taken down without any notice. After seven more days, he finally received a letter from the office of student conduct which made allegations of him interfering with normal University operations and violation of the use of Information Technology & Resources Policy.
At a July 24th conduct hearing, Arnold was found in violation of Misuse of Computing and Telecommunicating Resources(14g and 14i). Tim’s sanctions were harsh as he received a hold on his academic record, required to write two 5-8 page papers, and take a $15 dollar coaching session. On top of that, he lost his treasurer position in the Society for Marketing Professionals and is also in jeopardy of losing his spot in the Professional Selling Program.
Tim’s punishment has been seen as absurd by many, one 104.1 radio show host called him a genius and even offered to help him with a lawyer referral to appeal the decision.
Tim talked to us about how he felt about the decision and how he is going to try and appeal the decision watch the video below:
Notes:
-U Could Finish was an LLC that was shut down without notice.
-There was no ‘hacking’ into the UCF system to create the app, the information to find open classes was solely public record.
Tweet This
Digg This
Share on Facebook
Stumble it
RSS Feed
4 Comments
@Yellow Hornet: you left out a crucial piece of information yourself…the amount this guy made in a week came out to $7.76. I’m with you, he shouldn’t have been charging at all for this, but he was also charged with interfering with normal University operation. That seems a little weird to me, and more than a little unrelated to the monetary gain violation.
This kid knew what he was doing the whole time, and knew he was going to go to the news. He is solely responsible for this negative press for UCF, not the administration. What he was doing was not illegal, and no one has been arrested, but it was against the Golden Rule. Can I make meth in the bathtub of my dorm and say I was just trying to be resourceful and innovative?
The punishment is harsh considering the app used a guest account to log onto publically accessible data. The student did not do this anonymously and appeared to harbor no evil intent. His error was doing this without approval. UCF must protect its computer system & asking the student to cease & desist is reasonable. When UCF stopped the app from working, the fact that the student did not try to create a work around or hide his actions speaks volumes. Putting two student conduct violations on his permanent record and removing him from resume building student leadership positions is harsh, particularly if this is the student’s first offense.
The money issue matters most if what he was doing was illegal. He decided to charge for the service, perhaps to cover his own server and development costs, or perhaps in hopes of making a boat load of money. Google, Zillow & other search engines make money by sorting through public records & repackaging it in a useful form. With UCF saying in articles that it has the capability & are working toward a class waiting list, the student’s app would quickly become obsolete anyway. I wonder how UCF would have handled this situation if the app was made by someone who was not a student.
Hopefully some lessons are learned by both the student and UCF. Communication is key. The student should have sought approval. The school should have responded to the student’s questions when it stopped allowing access. This was a “teachable moment” for all.
The sanctions were “harsh”? I think they could have been a lot worse — for example, he could have been administratively withdrawn from classes, or possibly barred from enrolling in classes in a future semester.
Why is it that these articles are making this seem like that he was doing a completely altruistic deed and being punished, when Tim himself has admitted (in the comments of the Local 6 article a couple days ago) that he was *charging* (albeit a very low amount) for the service, when UCF policies clearly state that you cannot use their pages for personal gain or commercial purposed?
Once again, good luck in your appeal, Tim, but all of these articles need to stop leaving out this crucial piece of information.