Senior Chris Kelley has turned partying into more than hobby. He's made it digital.
For the last two years, Kelley, with the help of several friends, has hosted a Web site called partybsu.com. The Web site features a slogan that says "Ball State University's Party Resource" and includes links to pictures of students at off-campus parties and bartending forum pages.
Kelley, 21, said the idea for the Web site was a spontaneous one. It started out small but has grown in popularity.
"We went from having a few hits from our friends to averaging about 600 hits a week now," he said. "Basically, it's just grown by word of mouth."
The Web site first got noticed as a link off of Kelley's and several of his friends' Instant Messenger profiles. As more and more students, particularly freshmen, sought out parties on campus, he said people started turning more frequently to partybsu.com.
"We were using it to list parties that were going on around campus," Kelley said. "You know, people would e-mail us at the Web site and let us know about something they had going on, so we'd post it."
Those postings got several party-going people in trouble with the law last year after excise police got a hold of the list.
"Someone printed off a list of that weekend's parties and gave it to excise," Kelley explained. "So excise went around to all the parties and handed out tickets to anyone who was under age."
He said the students who held the parties didn't get upset with him about the cops busting their parties.
"They were pretty understanding," he said. "I mean, they had to be because they were the ones who submitted the parties to me anyway."
Kelley said the excise incident caught the attention of Randy Hyman, associate vice president for student services and dean of students.
"The dean heard about what happened," Kelley said. "But I don't think he knows about this Web site."
Hyman said he was aware of the incident and of partybsu.com, but he had not had any conversation with Kelley about it.
"In fact, my understanding after the incident last fall was that the Web site had been shut down," Hyman said. "I hadn't heard anything more about it since then, so this is the first I've heard it's back up and running."
Hyman also said no one in administration had given Kelley or any student involved with the Web site authorization to use Ball State's name in reference to its content.
"Could I get in trouble for that?" Kelley asked. "I mean, I guess I never really thought about it because I didn't mean any harm in what I was doing."
Kelley said he has never had any complaints from students showcased on his Web site. When he first started posting the party pictures, he said he went out to different parties and would ask the people in charge if it was okay for him to bring a camera.
If they said it was okay, then he would start talking to people -- sometimes strangers -- and ask if they wanted their photo taken.
"I'd tell them who I was and that I had a Web site I wanted to put their picture on," he said.
Recently, however, Kelley has added an upload link to his Web site that enables anybody to send in their party pictures. He said he goes through any submitted pictures before posting them.
"If they're too obscene, or if no one has given me permission in an e-mail to use them, then I will not put them up," he said.
Several weeks ago, Kelley received an e-mail from a male student with pictures of several girls who were nude and presumed intoxicated.
In the e-mail, the student said it was okay for Kelley to post the pictures because they had been taken at his house, but Kelley was told to black out the girls' faces.
He posted the pictures as they were for a day or two before he blacked them out. He said he felt bad about the incident and has since removed the pictures.
"I thought it wouldn't look good to Ball State if I kept them up," he said.
Howie Snider, an instructor of journalism who teaches media law, said Kelley could have faced a legal issue of invasion of privacy if the girls in the photo had not given him consent.
Snider, however, said students who attend large parties where such risky behavior can occur have to realize that their actions no longer remain private in such a setting.
"How could anyone expect privacy at a huge party?" he asked. "An event like that may as well be considered a public occurrence under the circumstances, and if a photo is taken in public, then it can be used for all sorts of purposes -- including posting on the Internet."
Kelley said he has yet to receive any complaints or legal action from the girls in the photo.
While some of its content can be controversial, many of the students who visit partybsu.com don't seem to have a problem with the material that is posted.
Freshman Alison Thompson, 19, said one of her friends (an unnamed freshman) thought having her picture on partybsu.com was funny.
"She didn't seem to mind it," Thompson said. "I don't think she cared that it showed her drinking, and I think it's fine."
Erich Leech, a graduate student who is pictured in several of the photos, said he was okay with it as well.
"I visit the Web site occasionally to see if there's anything new up," he said. "I'll check out the pictures mostly because I know a lot of the people on there. I really don't see a problem with anything on there."
Kelley said he will continue to keep his Web site up and running, and he said he hopes more students like Thompson and Leech will be attracted to its content.
He said he has plans to post fliers around campus to gain publicity, and he has contacted a Spring Break company to soon advertise Spring Break package deals on its home page.
In the future, he'd like to see the Web site become a part of Ball State's Web site.
"We could advertise for greek and campus events or for things like Family Weekend coming up," Kelley said. "I think it'd be a good addition."
Above all else, Kelley said what he hopes students take away from partybsu.com is a good time.
"Hopefully people will come to find out what they might have missed at any parties the week before," he said. "I certainly don't want people to come here and think we're trying to disrespect anybody in any way."
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