K.ODA TOUR2008「今日もどこかで」５

University Wire
04-10-2002

IOWA CITY, Iowa --
University of Iowa officials blocked the Internet privileges of the man they say sent a threatening e-mail to the UI College of Nursing, but campus police said Tuesday they can do nothing more.
That's because former UI nursing student Takahiko Senuma, 32, now lives in Tokyo -- too far away for officials to question him,
said Duane Papke, the associate director of Public Safety. Public Safety evacuated and locked down the nursing school March 29 after concerned officials reported the threat. The building reopened the next morning.
"From almost the beginning, we knew it was him," Papke said, explaining that Public Safety used the UI Information Technology Service to trace the threatening e-mail back to Senuma. "
The case is not closed. We're not going to investigate further at this time, but if he returns to the United States, we'll want to talk to him."
Papke said that because the investigation isn't final, the department will not make a copy of the threatening e-mail public.
Steven Burrows, a former UI freshman who lived down the hall from Senuma's Hillcrest room, said the accusations against such an "innocent, gentle person" shocked him.
"He was having a rough time with school," Burrows said. "I knew he was having some problems with a professor's class, and he later dropped it. He had a lot of complaints about the school."
Senuma, who already held a law degree in Japan, came to the UI because he wanted to continue his schooling, Burrows said. But his age often left him as an outcast, he said.
"He's a whiz with computers," Burrows said. "We helped each other. He didn't speak English well, so he brought his papers to me, and I would edit them. And when I had computer problems, he'd come fix them."

During last semester, when Senuma grew angry that Burrows' roommate had not paid for a football ticket he loaned them, the friendship became strained, Burrows said.
During his time as a student, Senuma openly criticized the university at least twice. Earlier this year, he petitioned to end the UI's flex-dollar program,
which automatically bills students $100 per semester for non-charge food purchases. Senuma said employees called Public Safety after he allegedly tried to use his flex dollars to buy food for others -- a practice the university bans.
In a March 15 letter to a DI reporter, the UI senior said he left the nursing school and returned to his native Japan in February because of the "inefficiency and bureaucracy of the faculty." The letter, signed "Taka," did not go into specifics.
Nursing school faculty have remained quiet about the incident, refusing to comment and not returning phone calls. An assistant nursing professor,
speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the school's administrators "have been keeping it really quiet."
"We got an e-mail on the following Monday saying the message made a serious threat," the teacher said, adding that administrators did not disclose the letter's contents but called them "bizarre."
Chuck Green, the assistant vice president for Public Safety, could not be reached for comment; he did not return phone calls.
The last e-mail threat at the UI, a racist letter vowing to detonate a bomb in the UI College of Dentistry, led Public Safety to evacuate the Dental Building in the spring of 2000.
Former UI dental student Tarsha Claiborne was later charged; she admitted to making the threats. She was sentenced to four years' probation and ordered to pay the university $17,000 in restitution.

University Wire
04-12-2002

(The Daily Iowan) (U-WIRE) IOWA CITY, Iowa -- Denying he ever threatened any University of Iowa College of Nursing faculty member, a 32-year-old former student now living in Japan
accused the university of trying to get rid of him for protesting school policies.
In an e-mail Thursday, Takahiko Senuma said allegations he sent a threatening e-mail to the UI College of Nursing came as "a bolt from the blue" and are false.
The e-mail, which was sent to former acquaintances, was obtained by the DI.
"I NEVER sent a bomb threat e-mail to the college or any member of the faculty in the college," Senuma wrote in the one-page message. "They cannot make what they call a 'bomb threat e-mail' public,
because it NEVER existed -- if you would find it, it should be a fake that they made."
UI officials were unavailable to comment on Senuma's e-mail Thursday.
UI Public Safety officials say Senuma, of Tokyo, sent a threatening e-mail to the nursing school March 29. The message, which school administrators reportedly described as "bizarre,"
led Public Safety to evacuate the Nursing Building for the rest of the day and the ensuing weekend.
University officials blocked Senuma's UI e-mail and Internet privileges but they said they will not make a copy of the alleged threatening e-mail public
because the investigation isn't final; however, officials said they will not look further into the matter unless Senuma enters the United States.

Senuma, known to his friends as "Taka," accused the university of trying to get rid of him after he protested the school's flex-dollar system,
which bills students $100 per semester for noncharge food purchases.
Writing in broken English, he fired back at the university with accusations officials would not allow him to take any nursing courses unless he agreed on seven "stupid stipulations"
to which no other student had to adhere. Senuma did not elaborate further and did not respond to an e-mail inquiry.
However, he acknowledged "complaining of the education of the college" and said an instructor forced him to leave.
"The instructor in the course forced me to drop from the course against my real intention," he said.
Senuma's friends paint him as a gentle man who is skilled with computers. UI senior Devashis Roy, who lost contact with Senuma after befriending him his sophomore year,
said he finds the allegations against Senuma difficult to believe.
"What I see it as is a misunderstanding on the university's part," Roy said.