I don't see any problem with restricting lab activities to
those related to course work or legitimate educational activities. In our
lab students aren't even allowed to do word processing for assignments,
although enforcement only occurs when someone is piggish enough to hog a
machine others need to use.
I would strongly advise a against content oriented prohibition. The
definitional problems of such an approach are a true quagmire, and the
constitutional issues even more so. Then there is the potential for bad
p.r. (Remember the U. of Pittsburgh?), and so on.
In other words, saying "no dirty pictures" raises thorny
questions about what a dirty picture is, and about free speech,
censorship, prior restraint, etc. Saying "only course related activities"
(or whatever) is easy to understand and easy to police.
Just my thoughts. Good luck!
Paul D. Healey J.D. (graduate student and technology lab coordinator),
School of Library and Information Science
3071 Main Library, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52241
email: phealey@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu Phone: 319-335-6478
"I once spent an entire day without food and an entire night without
sleep in order to meditate. I found no advantage in it. It is better to learn."
--Confucius
On Mon, 2 Jan 1995, Darin Fox wrote:
>
> Hello all,
>
> This message goes out mainly to those of you who are involved in
> administering computer labs in an academic setting. A few of our students
> have discovered how to retrieve pornographic pictures over the internet,
> and they are using our computer lab to display these pictures. Do any of
> you have policies that address such activities? Do you prohibit or
> discourage this activity, or do you feel this is a legitimate use?
> Obviously, we are concerned that this practice will offend other users and
> disrupt the study-oriented atmosphere of the lab. Thanks for any
> information.
>
> Darin Fox
> Computer Services / Systems Librarian
> University of Southern California Law Center
> dfox@law.usc.edu
>
>
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