In the latest episode of a series of heavy-handed management tactics in recent months, individuals at Antioch University Seattle, the local branch of a five-campus alternative university, have been caught using employees' computers to spy on them.

In the actions, reminiscent of the FBI of the Vietnam War era--which violated the civil rights of many anti-war and other activist groups--unidentified individuals within the university installed monitoring software on the computers of a specific group of faculty and staff.

Independent confirmation of the existence of the software program, called Timbuktu, revealed that at least 13 faculty and staff--most, coincidentally, known to have disagreed with recent administration decisions--have been targeted for observation.

Three additional computers that store and serve databases and electronic messages were also discovered to be running the software. One of these is in the office of the registrar, and this could have compromised the security of students' academic information.

Those responsible for the decision to install the software apparently didn't do their homework: Timbuktu, according to manufacturer Netopia, is "not meant to be used for spying," and has several built-in safeguards which "are there for moral and ethical reasons," to make it easy to detect the software's use.

One computer expert familiar with Timbuktu observed that "unless a person had little computer experience, he or she would eventually notice and wonder about the ever-present icon Timbuktu places in the menu bar." That icon, normally two tiny overlapping computers, turns into a face when someone who is using Timbuktu attempts to observe or control the computer of another person. "To be sure of getting away with it, you'd have to do it when the person was away from their computer," he said.

Timbuktu is designed to allow authorized users to monitor, control, exchange, and install files on remote computers where it has been installed--but it purposefully leaves behind the icon and an activity log, which makes it virtually impossible to use it to spy on people via their computers.

Antioch's troubles extend far beyond its employees being watched without their knowledge: Student enrollment is declining and employee turnover rates, particularly among staff, have been well above fifty percent in the last two years. This frequent exodus of workers is often attributed by insiders to an atmosphere of fear and intimidation that has spread throughout the school as a result of the current administration's style of management. Not even the student newspaper was safe: After two issues of coverage of controversial stories, administrators revoked publishing privileges in June.

While most of those who leave do so by choice, others have reportedly been forced out of their jobs. One prominent case is that of Harold Nelson, the director of one of the university's graduate degree programs, whom the president demoted in April to a regular faculty position. The president's decision was attributed at the time to Nelson's "unwillingness to work with" the president and support her proposed changes to his department's structure, which he believed would undercut the essence of the program, called Whole Systems Design. Nelson mounted a legal challenge to the decision in May.

In mediation earlier this month, an additional reason for the president's decision to remove him came to light. Among the charges Nelson made regarding the appropriateness of his dismissal, the charge of sexual discrimination elicited a curious defense from the president: Her attorney asserted that it was not illegal for the president to fire Nelson and replace him with a faculty person with whom she had an intimate relationship.