Grand Valley State Student Busted For Trying To Cancel Class By Posing As Professor

Rex Reagan12 years ago

The “class has been canceled” e-mail is one of college life’s little pleasures. It’s way better than having to climb out of bed at the crack of noon just to end up finding a note taped to a locked classroom door. This glorious e-mail not only gives you a precious extra 50-minutes outside of the classroom, but allows you to plan accordingly.

It’s hard to blame a Grand Valley State University student for trying to bring this little bit of joy to his classmates. Unfortunately, the GVSU administration and police department were not too happy that he created a fake e-mail account posing as a professor to do it.

From M Live:

A Grand Valley State University student has confessed to impersonating faculty or administrators in fraudulent email messages sent to students and faculty, according to an announcement posted today on the university’s website.

Though the story doesn’t mention specifically what the student sent in the e-mail, the writer mentioned that the school website posted a message saying, “Any official notification of class cancellations or university closure will be sent through Grand Valley’s official emergency notification system and will appear on the university’s home page and official social media outlets.”

Putting two and two together, and thinking through the only plausible motive for pretending to send e-mails as a professor, it’s pretty clear what this student was trying to accomplish. More impressive than just trying to get class canceled, this statement makes it look like this guy tried to get the student body to think the entire university was closed.

The best part is how he did it. The student didn’t even try to hack into a professor’s e-mail. That would be too credible. Instead, the story said he used a G-mail account. When students received an e-mail from “GVSUprof69@gmail.com,” there’s no doubt they believed that class was canceled, the school was closing and a Nigerian prince needed money. Inevitably, chaos ensued.

Like any good university police department responding to a threat as serious as fake e-mailing, GVSU law enforcement used the full extent of their powers to quash the uprising.

In a statement released through Mlive on Mar. 21:

Fake emails sent to Grand Valley State University faculty and students are not a prank but a criminal matter, according to the campus police department.

The story says the police department began a criminal investigation and issued search warrants. Lucky for them they found their brilliant e-mail plot conspirator. Though they found him only after he admitted to it four days after their “investigation” began, justice was still served and campus order was restored. The school can now focus on important things, like awarding scholarships to robotics team champions.

Meanwhile, the student now faces criminal charges and a judicial referral to the Dean of Student’s Office. For a few days though he had made his campus a little bit of a brighter place.

[via M Live]

Image via Grandvillage Inn