The best response to an FOI request, in the world – ever

Have you seen a crazy notice on the toilet door of your university asking you not to engage in what The Sun sometimes terms flying solo? Would you file an official request for information if you did?

I got a heads-up on Twitter and found myself looking at an FOI request around this notice that had appeared on the toilet walls according to the request on the site What Do They Know?

Clearly this looks a bit suspect – but the best bit is the excellent response from the member of staff at the University who has clearly spotted what is going on here:

It was a student prank, and regrettably not even an original prank. The notice appears to be a copycat issue of a similar text which appeared recently at Durham and Lancaster universities and a number of universities in the States.

A quick check on Google should give you more information about these incidents should you require it. A strong clue that the notice is fake is the line “Please go home and masturbate if you are bored.”

As a matter of policy, the University would never encourage students to go home during term time.

The absolute killer is the closing lines to this piece – clearly the FOI officer is fulfilling their remit about supporting and helping the applicant to the maximum and deserves to be applauded.

Far from having a policy on masturbation or outlawing the practice, as the bogus notice alleged, the University encourages the study of it, academically at least. Among the titles in the University Library is “Solitary Sex : A Cultural History of Masturbation” by Thomas Walter Laqueur, pub Zone Books, New York, 2003.

[1]http://resourcelists.st-andrews.ac.uk/it…
one copy still available to borrow.

I trust this answers your request, but if you require any further information, please don’t hesitate to contact me.