WikiLeaks comes to college campuses

A version of WikiLeaks may be making its way to college campuses.

UniLeaks, a newly launched website, announced its aim to expose “corruption and mismanagement” in United States colleges in an open letter to university presidents on Monday.

The website, which also operates in the United Kingdom and Australia, is dedicated to reporting on and publishing confidential university documents to scrutinize university operations. UniLeaks only accepts restricted or censored material relating to higher education anonymously through its website.

Careful to distinguish itself from being “just another rumor mill,” Captain Kangaroo, a UniLeaks spokesperson, wrote that the website seeks “hard evidence of malfeasance and corruption” and will not “accept rumor or conjecture.”

While Penn administrators were unable to comment on the launch of UniLeaks, Executive Vice President Craig Carnaroli said the University “communicates openly, engages and consults broadly with its varied constituencies, both internal and external” in many ways.

He cited faculty groups, student meetings with administrators, open forums and meetings as examples of how the University maintains transparency.

Peter Collopy, a third-year graduate student in the Department of History and Sociology of Science, said while it is unclear what the “political analysis” of UniLeaks is, the website is bound to attract an audience.

“Colleges and universities have a lot of planning processes that tend to be fairly closed-doors,” Collopy said. “While the decisions made are announced, the research and the process are not, and I think a lot of stakeholders such as students and faculty would be interested in these processes.”

He added that UniLeaks could also serve as a platform for those who hold views that are in the minority to seek anonymous support.

Since the launch of WikiLeaks — a website that exposes confidential diplomatic messages — many similar projects have sprung up, including OpenLeaks, IndoLeaks and Balkan Leaks.

Kristoffer Whitney — a graduate student in the Department of History and Sociology of Science who taught a summer course called “The Information Age: Computer, Bodies, Environment” — said it is possible to adapt WikiLeaks to higher education.

“In most cases, granting corporations rights means infringing on those of actual human beings,” Whitney said. “It is certainly possible to apply that by analogy to transparency and higher education.”

However, the impact of UniLeaks in the United States is unclear, said Joanna Radin, a History and Sociology of Science graduate student. Radin, who also taught “The Information Age,” said “it is possible to imagine a scenario in which it might direct attention to more systemic issues characteristic of the relationship between higher education, economic conditions and citizenship.”

“As an elite institution with a global presence, I would expect Penn to be aware of the emergence of UniLeaks and prepared to participate in discussions about the broader issues at play,” she added.

Currently, there is only one document on the University of Birmingham posted on UniLeaks.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.