“Wow! What an incredible response. Since its launch approximately 24 hours ago, there have been 208 new users on the UBC Life discussion forums, in which 57 topics and 346 posts were created. Thank you! We appreciate your support and hope to address some of your concerns in this letter.

Before we introduce the team behind this project, we would like to assure you that we live by the principle of doing no harm. Before proceeding with the project, we held meetings and consulted with various parties on the potential risks and benefits of our actions. We ensured that the benefits to students and the community, through sharing ideas and offering support to one another, outweigh potential harms.

Who are we? UBC Life is a student-driven, university-supported initiative. The idea was first discussed in late 2008, when three UBC students — Sheryl, Elisabeth, and Mike — noticed that an online, centralized platform for sharing thoughts, messages, and ideas did not exist for the university community. Something had to be done. The trio’s dreams came true when two staff members came forward and collaborated with the team. Their expertise allowed a sample of the campus community to become aware of UBC Life in an effective, sustainable, and paper-free manner. Furthermore, their relationships with various on-campus organizations enabled us to acquire the three grand prizes, which gives all active users an equal chance to become a winner.

Again, we appreciate your enthusiasm, support, feedback, curiosity, and genuine concern. We would like reassure you that the UBC Life discussion forums are very serious about the well-being and privacy of the community.

Sincerely,

The UBC Life Team”

Follow this link (http://ubclife.com/topic/about-us) to read the thread of students discussing how they obtained all of our emails, sent out a mass email, and who is behind the new website.

Update: check out the wiki to learn more about UBC Life. http://wiki.ubc.ca/UBClife thanks, gossipguy 😉