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From: russotto@eng.umd.edu (Matthew T. Russotto)
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk,comp.admin.policy
Subject: Re: Ohio State University CIS Policies
Message-ID: <1991Jun4.160947.7193@eng.umd.edu>
Date: 4 Jun 91 16:09:47 GMT
References: <1991Jun3.165946.12637@eff.org> <1991Jun3.173550.13928@eff.org> <1991Jun3.232500.24850@ms.uky.edu>
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Organization: College of Engineering, Maryversity of Uniland, College Park
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In article <1991Jun3.232500.24850@ms.uky.edu> morgan@ms.uky.edu (Wes Morgan) writes:
>In article <1991Jun3.173550.13928@eff.org> kadie@eff.org (Carl Kadie) writes:
>>
>>The fatal flaw in the policies is the lack of any notion of due
>>process. It looks like a student or a faculty member could be
>>suspending or expelled from the computer system at the whim of sys
>>admin without recourse to a formal hearing.
>>
>
>Why, oh why, is *everything* turning into a "formal" or "due
>process" situation?  We've never had any problem with a student
>that wasn't solved with a face-to-face conversation.  I've 
>stopped chain letters, obscene files, and email flood wars with
>a simple "please drop by to see me" message.  Sure, users have
>been locked out here; this only occurred when the student ignored
>several requests to come in for a meeting.  I haven't had to lock
>anyone out yet; those few occurances were several years ago.
>
>I realize that "due process" is a student right; however, aren't
>we getting just a bit too stringent in its application?  Heck, 
>I guess I'll have to schedule a hearing to kill user processes
>that are using > 75% of the available system, since it's their
>final project and I'm infringing their rights.
>
>Let's step back, take a deep breath, and look at this from a
>new perspective, shall we?

I was barred from use of the computer systems at the UMCP computer science
center without warning.  The message put up when I attempted to log on told
me to talk to "the System Administrator", whoever the heck that might be. So
I called the guy I knew logged on as 'root'---  he told me that I had been
locked out by a different guy, the "accounts administrator".  I talked to this
'accounts administrator', who told me that he had heard reports that I had
been 'bothering people' (by messing with X-windows), but that to get my account
back, I would have to talk to the 'system administrator'.  I talked to him
again, and was sent back to the 'accounts administrator', who sent me
back to the 'system administrator'.  I got sick of the obvious runaround, and
went and applied for a number of new accounts under phony names.  Eventually,
they brought me to the judicial programs office or having all those accounts,
and I was found responsible for 'theft of services'.

If there had been some sort of due process in the first place, perhaps I
wouldn't have had such trouble.  Informal stuff only works when both sides are
trying for a real solution-- not when the side with more power only wants to
avoid what they percieve as a problem by getting rid of the student involved.
--
Matthew T. Russotto	russotto@eng.umd.edu	russotto@wam.umd.edu
     .sig under construction, like the rest of this campus.