More news this week about Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs and their situation regarding WikiLeaks, the controversial website that has been releasing government documents, most recently, a set of over 250,000 US diplomatic cables.

Last week, CTV reported that SIPA, one of the most prestigious graduate schools of public policy, sent students an email warning them that commenting on these leaked cables would call into question their ability to deal with confidential information, which is a part of most positions with the federal government. The ethics of the WikiLeaks release have been the subject of much debate across the nation.

After the letter received national media coverage and sparked outrage by some people who cried censorship, Dean of SIPA John Coatsworth sent a second email to students in which he rescinded the first email and defended their right to free speech. In the email, he said:

“Freedom of information and expression is a core value of our institution. Thus, SIPA’s position is that students have a right to discuss and debate any information in the public arena that they deem relevant to their studies or to their roles as global citizens, and to do so without fear of adverse consequences. Should the U.S. Department of State issue any guidelines relating to the WikiLeaks documents for prospective employees, SIPA will make them available immediately.”

CTV reached out to several SIPA students who received the emails to see what they thought about the issue.

Student 1: I am confused because we got an email saying that apparently we would not be able to get jobs in the government if we linked our Twiter or Facebook to the WikiLeaks page, but then we heard that they took it back.

Student 2: I’m a PhD student in political science, so from my perspective, the WikiLeaks [release] is a very good event because it gives us more data to work with and a chance to really look at the processes behind a lot of the things that we have been studying more in depth. Obviously, it doesn’t really affect our job prospects at all.

Student 3: I don’t feel that Career Services was censoring people. I think that they were giving important words of wisdom to American students especially, students from the United States, to be thoughtful about how they were engaging the WikiLeaks.

Student 4: I thought that Dean Coatsworth did a great job at reaffirming the institution’s and the student’s view in general that we want to be able to have freedom of information at Columbia and be able to use this information that has come out and is available publically as academic evidence.

Student 5:  More of the fact is that we should be worried about why prospective employees of the federal government should be worries about it, but it doesn’t really bother me about SIPA sending [the warning] out.

Student 6: I don’t know if it was sent down from on high in the State Department, but I do believe it was inappropriate and very ‘Big Brother-esque’ and I was disappointed that it wouldn’t stop at OCS, that OCS forwarded it to students thinking it was a good idea.