Sad Legal News About a Former Champion

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BobF
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Re: Sad Legal News About a Former Champion

Post by BobF »

IronNeck wrote: Fri May 04, 2018 11:20 pm
Quantum wrote:Here is my suspicion: Jass and the unnamed "friend" to whom she showed the results Jass obtained by logging in to the accounts of the President (and others) at Adrian College may both have been up for promotion to Full Professor.
This is silly, baseless speculation. Unless you're personally involved in the investigation (in which case, you're probably committing a crime by writing about it here), wait for the court case and stop making up ridiculous theories.
Quantum wrote: Fri May 04, 2018 10:23 pm Also, I saw no sign whatever that Jass intended to blackmail anyone--just the word of the "friend" who has "since been promoted."
So you know better than Jass' friend and direct witness who has made a formal police statement of what she experienced? And from what "source" do you get this knowledge?

Also, why do you like using quotation marks to question the credibility of someone you've never even met?

It's funny; there have indeed been a few people in this topic jumping to conclusions and slandering people they've never met. Only the conclusions are that Jass is innocent and the slander that her friend is a liar.
Human nature to speculate on that type of stuff. I'll just sit back, keep my opinions on what might have happened to myself (except for above where I think I said it's sad to hear about it and I may have been surprised by it) and wait to see what happens.

ETA: Never mind, I didn't post that, just thought it - until today.
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Quantum
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Re: Sad Legal News About a Former Champion

Post by Quantum »

A few of my comments are speculative, but they are based on many years of experience in academia. People who are 47-year-old Associate Professors tend to be interested in promotion to Full Professor, though some are not. I put has "since been promoted" in quotation marks not to impugn the person with whom Jass shared the information, but rather to indicate that it is a direct quotation from the new source which I mentioned. You can find it by Googling the phrase that I suggested, about this case. It has more information than the initial news link had. I put "friend" in quotations most of the time, because it doesn't seem to me that the person with whom Jass shared the information acted as a true friend would. I have seen no information that suggests that Jass intended to blackmail anyone with the information she got by accessing the email accounts. This seems to have been a fear of the friend. Perhaps it was a justified fear--but on the basis of the information in the news accounts, let alone the principle of "innocent until proven guilty," I am very much inclined to doubt that the fear was justified. I suppose some of the information will come out in June.
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Re: Sad Legal News About a Former Champion

Post by Quantum »

There is a very substantial difference between lying and harboring an unjustified fear.
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Re: Sad Legal News About a Former Champion

Post by davey »

Quantum wrote: Sat May 05, 2018 5:01 pm A few of my comments are speculative, but they are based on many years of experience in academia. People who are 47-year-old Associate Professors tend to be interested in promotion to Full Professor, though some are not. I put has "since been promoted" in quotation marks not to impugn the person with whom Jass shared the information, but rather to indicate that it is a direct quotation from the new source which I mentioned. You can find it by Googling the phrase that I suggested, about this case. It has more information than the initial news link had. I put "friend" in quotations most of the time, because it doesn't seem to me that the person with whom Jass shared the information acted as a true friend would. I have seen no information that suggests that Jass intended to blackmail anyone with the information she got by accessing the email accounts. This seems to have been a fear of the friend. Perhaps it was a justified fear--but on the basis of the information in the news accounts, let alone the principle of "innocent until proven guilty," I am very much inclined to doubt that the fear was justified. I suppose some of the information will come out in June.
The article you've been referring to says that "Jass, 47, of Tecumseh was charged in December with unauthorized access to a computer, program or network, and using a computer to commit a crime, both felonies." She's not been charged with blackmail or extortion. Your speculation has nothing to do with this prosecution. I doubt that anything more in the emails will "come out" at trial. If her defense is that the people whose emails were accessed - who included, according to that same article, "several unnamed fellow faculty members and students, including her stepson" - were saying mean things, that's a losing strategy...
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Re: Sad Legal News About a Former Champion

Post by Anachronism »

Unless there's something unusual we don't know, this type of case is usually settled before trial with a plea deal. I doubt we ever learn anything more than we already have read.

Hacking has as many definitions as there are hackers. This would qualify under some of the definitions, albeit really, really easy hacking. I don't know of any formal hacking crime. The illegal part is what she allegedly accessed, not the method she would have used.
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Re: Sad Legal News About a Former Champion

Post by Quantum »

It is my guess that the charge of using a computer to commit a crime refers to Jass's use of a computer to access the emails that she was not authorized to access. I will be very surprised if it is anything else. I acknowledge that it could be something else, but I really don't think so. If there is a plea deal (which seems probable), we may never learn what actually happened.

I freely admit that I do not know what happened in this case, at all. But in the words of the Farmers Insurance ad, "I know a thing or two, because I've seen a thing or two," particularly in academic settings.
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Re: Sad Legal News About a Former Champion

Post by davey »

Quantum wrote: Sat May 05, 2018 6:31 pm It is my guess that the charge of using a computer to commit a crime refers to Jass's use of a computer to access the emails that she was not authorized to access....
Yes, that's fairly obvious. Most of us haven't suggested anything else.
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Re: Sad Legal News About a Former Champion

Post by Quantum »

Thanks for your post, davey! I agree with you that most of the people on the Jboard would realize that. I doubt that the majority of the people living in the area around Adrian College would realize it, though. Maybe I am selling them short, but I doubt it.
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Re: Sad Legal News About a Former Champion

Post by Stanislaus Jacob »

Quantum wrote: Fri May 04, 2018 10:20 pm Here is my suspicion: Jass and the unnamed "friend" to whom she showed the results Jass obtained by logging in to the accounts of the President (and others) at Adrian College may both have been up for promotion to Full Professor. Or possibly just the friend who has "since been promoted" (according to the news account I mentioned) was up for promotion to Full Professor, and Jass anticipated following within a few years.
I can't figure out how any of this would be relevant even if true. Maybe this thread should be locked if weird comments of this type continue.
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Re: Sad Legal News About a Former Champion

Post by Quantum »

Here is why my comment is relevant: It is based on lived experience. I emphasize that this is not experience with hacking nor with accessing anyone's account that I am not authorized to access, but with the ins and outs of promotions in academia.

My department has rarely succeeded in promoting anyone without making that person very angry. Yes, you read that sentence right. I am writing about successful promotions making people angry, not about unsuccessful ones. They also tend to make the person's friends angry. I recall one instance of a colleague who was promoted to Full Professor at the age of 34, and even he became angry during the promotion process.

What would be the significance of the news report mentioning that the friend had "since been promoted" if some of the Sturm and Drang around an academic promotion season were not involved? I think it is probably at the root of the whole issue (perhaps only for Jass's friend).

I respect the people on the jboard a very great deal for their knowledgability. In a lot of cases, I am in over my head with the competitive level in knowledge-based questions, outside of science.

I hope that you might extend to me the courtesy of entertaining the possibility that I know quite a lot about the reactions of people and their friends, when they are being considered for promotion from Associate Professor to Full Professor. If it is outside of your experience range, you may not have much basis to judge whether my comment is "weird" or accurate.

My spouse and I were both fortunate to be promoted to Full Professor at the age of 36, but I cannot say that we went through the process with total serenity. (Well, maybe my spouse did.) I think the news reports are enough to indicate that there is certainly more to the story (as there often is); and I have become pretty accurate over time in reading between the lines in the academic arena.

I hope that there is not a gag order on this situation, so that for instance The Chronicle of Higher Education might cover it and make some semblance of sense out of the sad situation.
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Re: Sad Legal News About a Former Champion

Post by jeff6286 »

You could maybe explain what in the hell you're talking about rather than these constant cryptic statements. Successful promotions make people angry? Why? Is this too much to ask?
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Re: Sad Legal News About a Former Champion

Post by Quantum »

It's not the promotion itself that makes people angry, obviously, it's the process. The person feels that he/she is under intense scrutiny, colleagues in the department are obligated to remain quiet about everything, here (though perhaps not at Adrian) outside experts are always asked to evaluate the publications, the funding, and the conference presentation record, and one has no idea which outside experts have been selected by the department, critical commentary is invited, the recommendation has to go up the administrative chain, and the department might vote favorably while the recommendation is turned down at a higher level. The whole thing generally takes about 10 months. I can only tell you what I've seen. At the level of promotion from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor with tenure, my department went for many years without having unanimous recommendations in favor of promotion from the outside experts. Promotions can become contentious within a department. I remember numerous cases where that has happened. Several times, I have had to argue vigorously in favor of younger colleagues who have subsequently turned out to be splendid scientists.

People have invested their whole lives in their academic work, often with considerable sacrifice of normal lives. This makes them edgier.

It is obviously orders of magnitude more disruptive to be turned down, than to be promoted. But I am not kidding when I say that the 34-year-old "Wunderkind" who was promoted was angry about the way that he was treated by my department during the process.

I think it is quite evident from the news report that Jass's friend was under consideration for promotion.
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Re: Sad Legal News About a Former Champion

Post by Dr. J »

This thread is so upsetting to me. It’s like I don’t even exist as a person. Feel free to speculate about whatever you like, but the articles you are citing do not have all the facts, nor are they all correct. I was awarded Full Professor in 2014, and my “friend” is also a Full Professor and was not up for promotion. She has since been promoted to a Dean’s position.

That’s all I’m comfortable saying. I won’t be back here for a variety of reasons. If you’d like to be a friend, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter or FB. If not, feel free to continue to impugn me further without knowing much about me or the context of the situation.

Sigh.
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Re: Sad Legal News About a Former Champion

Post by alietr »

Dr. J wrote: Tue May 08, 2018 10:56 pm This thread is so upsetting to me. It’s like I don’t even exist as a person. Feel free to speculate about whatever you like, but the articles you are citing do not have all the facts, nor are they all correct. I was awarded Full Professor in 2014, and my “friend” is also a Full Professor and was not up for promotion. She has since been promoted to a Dean’s position.

That’s all I’m comfortable saying. I won’t be back here for a variety of reasons. If you’d like to be a friend, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter or FB. If not, feel free to continue to impugn me further without knowing much about me or the context of the situation.

Sigh.
Thanks for straightening that out, at least, Dr. J.
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Re: Sad Legal News About a Former Champion

Post by Anachronism »

Quantum wrote: Tue May 08, 2018 6:36 pm It's not the promotion itself that makes people angry, obviously, it's the process. The person feels that he/she is under intense scrutiny, colleagues in the department are obligated to remain quiet about everything, here (though perhaps not at Adrian) outside experts are always asked to evaluate the publications, the funding, and the conference presentation record, and one has no idea which outside experts have been selected by the department, critical commentary is invited, the recommendation has to go up the administrative chain, and the department might vote favorably while the recommendation is turned down at a higher level. The whole thing generally takes about 10 months. I can only tell you what I've seen. At the level of promotion from Assistant Professor to Associate Professor with tenure, my department went for many years without having unanimous recommendations in favor of promotion from the outside experts. Promotions can become contentious within a department. I remember numerous cases where that has happened. Several times, I have had to argue vigorously in favor of younger colleagues who have subsequently turned out to be splendid scientists.

People have invested their whole lives in their academic work, often with considerable sacrifice of normal lives. This makes them edgier.

It is obviously orders of magnitude more disruptive to be turned down, than to be promoted. But I am not kidding when I say that the 34-year-old "Wunderkind" who was promoted was angry about the way that he was treated by my department during the process.

I think it is quite evident from the news report that Jass's friend was under consideration for promotion.
Since my wife is about a year from the final tenure decision, and, my gosh, it's hard to believe that adults can treat each other as they do in this setting, I understand all of this. Academia... sigh. I honestly don't understand why anyone would ever want to join such a world.

I think you're selling the people of southeastern Michigan a little short, but, then again, no matter where you live you tend to think of everywhere else as backward or unenlightened or nasty or any of a number of pejoratives.

I can also understand Dr. J's point, though my guess is that she'd find this group to be as supportive and wanting to listen as possible. Also, that sharing your story when you have a legal process to complete is simply not a good idea. I know my wife and I are rooting for (if it's possible to root for these things) a positive outcome and that the published stories so far have led us to believe worse than what actually happened.
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Re: Sad Legal News About a Former Champion

Post by Quantum »

I am really sorry, Dr. J! The news articles had factual material wrong, that would have been fairly easy to get right. The friend was promoted to Dean eventually, and that was the promotion in question? Or there was no promotion in question?
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Re: Sad Legal News About a Former Champion

Post by Quantum »

I have sent a private message to Dr. J with an apology. The news articles had facts wrong.
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Re: Sad Legal News About a Former Champion

Post by Stanislaus Jacob »

I think Quantum actually meant to defend Dr. Jass, but she writes about as well as MTGcollegestudent. Even though she has apologized, it is still further reason to look the thread until conviction or acquittal or some other concrete event occurs.
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Re: Sad Legal News About a Former Champion

Post by Bamaman »

I would imagine Dr. J’s attorney has advised her not to say anything about the case on social media. I am glad she straightened out the dates of when she became a full professor (a matter of public record I would assume), but I don’t want her discussing it any further (and I certainly wouldn’t ask her anything) until the matter is closed in court.

Dr J, thanks for straightening out what you discussed. I wish you well.
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Re: Sad Legal News About a Former Champion

Post by harrumph »

Thank you Dr J for your statement in this thread. Best wishes to you.
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