A MySpace page listing musical events at Baker University Center is no longer linked on Ohio University’s Web site after it displayed a graphic that appeared to be an advertisement for marijuana.

The graphic, which was posted Dec. 6, featured a picture of a green plant, mild references to marijuana and some profanity, said Max Malloy, assistant director of Marketing and Information Services at Baker Center.

“(The graphic) was definitely a spammer,” said Ohio University senior Brian Ostrander, who created the site a year and a half ago while booking and promoting concerts at Baker Center.

A link to the MySpace page was created on OU’s Web site because of a belief in Ostrander’s support of local music and Athens’ need for a site that would make musical information more accessible, Malloy said.

“It was a promotional site for Baker Center that a (student employee) did on his own,” said George Mauzy, a writer and editor for University Communications and Marketing. “It wasn’t an Ohio University site.”

Ostrander said he was not monitoring the site when the graphic was posted because he wasn’t employed at Baker Center after Fall Quarter.

Malloy said Baker Center staff does periodic checks on the site but that he was on vacation at the time of the posting.

The graphic was first discovered when a parent called The Columbus Dispatch, Mauzy said, adding that the graphic was not an ad as the article suggested.  

The future of the site is not yet clear, Malloy said.  

“We will reinstitute the site if we think we can monitor it,” he said.  

Ostrander, who started his own booking company, suggested bypassing MySpace altogether.

“It would be cool for OU to build (its own) promotional site for events on campus,” he said.