Last week, an Iowa State student’s Web site received statewide attention because it contained links to sites with bomb recipes, pornography and computer hacking instructions.

The Web page was designed by Justin Everman, senior in electrical engineering. He is one of about 7,000 students to have sites through the university’s server.

The day after The Des Moines Register ran a front-page article on his Web site, Everman removed the recipes.

Some students think controversial content on personal Web sites is not as uncommon as some newspapers and television stations would make it out to be.

“I think that they made too big of a deal just about this one guy because I’m sure there are hundreds of people that have sites like this,” said Jill Benson, freshman in political science.

Though the topic brought about a lot of media attention early last week, John McCarroll, director of university relations, said he has not heard much response since the incident was brought up.

“I haven’t heard any more on it,” McCarroll said. “I don’t know how unusual [online bomb recipes] are, but it did get a lot of media play.”

McCarroll said the issue probably received media attention because of the content.

“Some issues like this tend to get a lot of play because it is out of the ordinary,” McCarroll said. “I think one reason a lot of attention was given to this was the content. The topic [of online bomb recipes] gets a lot of attention.”

Though Benson does not think students should be allowed to display this kind of material on their university-sponsored sites, she said the media has given excess attention to the incident in this situation.

“I don’t think it’s a huge deal, and I don’t think that many other people will think it’s that big of a deal either — until somebody decides to use this recipe to blow up somebody else’s personal belongings,” Benson said.

Though some articles reported that university officials were upset about the issue, McCarroll said he is not upset and has not heard that any other administration officials are upset.

“I think it’s very important that the student has rights; as long as the material on that site doesn’t violate the ethics code, he can certainly do that,” McCarroll said. “It is not a matter of what is my personal taste or your personal taste; he has First Amendment rights and that needs to be respected.”

McCarroll said he has not heard of any further discussion on the need to revise the current guidelines governing university Web site use, but even if there were, it would be very hard to control what students put on their sites.

“The Web is a very complex communication tool. Something can appear on the Web one second, and it’ll be gone the next,” McCarroll said.

Matt Nelson, freshman in pre-architecture, said he does not think ISU student Web sites should be censored, and he thought incidents like these are probably not very common.

“I would think that it would be pretty unusual. It’s something that [people] should be aware of, but I don’t think it should be made too big a deal,” Nelson said. “I seriously doubt that something will come out of this.”

Nelson said controversial information is not too hard to pull off the World Wide Web.

“If you really want to find a bomb recipe, you probably can. It really doesn’t make much difference whether you find it on an ISU Web site or somewhere else,” Nelson said. “If someone really wants to find something on the Internet, they will.”

McCarroll said he does not think the administration will try to censor student Web sites, but he questions what students should be doing with personal Web sites connected through the university.

“I don’t think there is anything new about this info; it has been out there. The natural question is: ‘Is this allowable?’ and ‘Is this what students should be doing with their Web sites?'” McCarroll said.