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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!aecom!naftoli
From: naftoli@aecom.UUCP (Robert N. Berlinger)
Newsgroups: net.news.adm
Subject: Re: Should news/mail access be given to students?
Message-ID: <866@aecom.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 9-Oct-84 10:38:29 EDT
Article-I.D.: aecom.866
Posted: Tue Oct  9 10:38:29 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 10-Oct-84 06:04:52 EDT
References: <399@wucs.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Albert Einstein Coll. of Med., NY
Lines: 33

> Those of you who administrate news and systems in universities--
> do you let the general student population read news?  post news?
> receive mail? send mail?

Here at Albert Einstein College, we administrate the computing 
for all undegraduate divisions of Yeshiva University.  Concerning 
news/mail, we have taken the position that a student is 
responsible for his/her actions, and therefore we do not limit 
the students' access to the net, save for not allowing them read 
access to net.bugs and net.sources (more about that later).  We 
feel that if a student performs some undesireable action, it will 
be a reflection of their personal behavior and not of the 
college's.  

As for net.bugs, we feel that since security bugs are sometimes 
posted there, it is in our best interests to keep the bugs to 
ourselves.  And we also turn off net.sources, simply because we 
don't want multiple copies of the same program floating.  If a 
user sees that a particular piece of software was posted to 
net.sources by reading some other newsgroup, he/she can mail a 
request to one of the administrators and they will arrange for 
the program to be integrated into our local software collection.  
Also, security bug hacker programs are sometimes posted to 
net.sources.  

It is my opinion that most net users deal with other *users*.  
Not sites.  Just because joeshmoe has a login on site xyz, 
doesn't mean that he reflects the attitude of the administration 
on that machine.  
-- 
Robert Berlinger
...{philabs,cucard,pegasus,ihnp4,rocky2}!aecom!naftoli
"If you're not where you are, you're nowhere"