Erasing Divide, College Leaders Take to Blogging

Thanks to an e-mail message from "trinity gurl", an anonymous cybersnoop, Patricia A. McGuire, the president of Trinity University here, suddenly faced a digital-age dilemma.

The e-mail message turned in another student for using profanity on her personal Web page, which linked to Trinity's Web site. Nothing scandalous, but Dr. McGuire was more troubled, she said, that "trinity gurl" had snitched in secrecy.

So Dr. McGuire reached for a particularly apt solution in the age of the blogosphere: She censured the eager informant on her own blog, comparing the e-mailer to Big Brother and asking, "Who is "trinity gurl" and why is she sending me this kind of information about something a student is posting online?"