Snapshots and sweatsocks

Some rules are made to be broken. Other rules are made to prevent bad things from happening. The new cell phone ban in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation locker rooms is designed to protect the University from civil liability. \nThree weeks ago, a female student used the camera in her cell phone to obtain naked pictures of another female student while both were in the HPER women's locker room (IDS, March 24). Knowledge of this case of voyeurism prompted facility directors to enact a ban on cell phones in all locker room areas. As Larry Patrick, director of Services, Programs and Facilities for the HPER, noted, "It only takes one to get sued."\nThe surreptitious use of cell phone cameras has become somewhat of a nationwide problem. The relatively small size of the phones allows people to inconspicuously photograph others in compromising positions. Imagine wearing a skirt to a bar one night and waking up to an e-mailed picture of your underside the next morning. Or in the case of the HPER, taking a shower after a workout and getting your birthday suit captured in JPG format. \nThe HPER ban was installed after only one known instance of peeping photography, but according to the Washington Post, many gyms are banning cell phones in locker rooms for this reason (Sept. 23, 2003). John Pedersen, facility support director for the Student Recreational Sports Center, said he is concerned the issue is becoming a national trend.\n"We've read about and heard about this happening as close to us as the HPER, but other places at other universities have alerted us," he said (IDS, March 24).\nThe ban will be useful in the sense that it gives authorities an official criteria for punishing offenders. And certainly, sacrificing phone calls in the locker room is a small price to pay for an overall greater security. However, it's hard to say if the ban will deter the problem it was designed to address. \nA person who secretly takes a picture can continue to do it secretly. Yes, it will be easy to catch a person who is breaking the rule by talking on a cell phone, but the real problem, the covert photographers, will still be disguised by the silence of their task and the privacy of the locker room.\nWe hope the cell phone ban will have some effect on these new-age invasions of privacy, and appreciate the HPER's promptness in addressing the issue. If nothing else, it should make students aware of this technological trend. Knowing that locker room offenders could exist should give gym-goers the heightened ability to catch them. However, this doesn't change the fact that perpetrators will remain elusive. Remember, part of the HPER's reason for the ban was to cover its own butt -- you should probably keep yours covered, too.