Xref: utzoo alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk:64 comp.admin.policy:280 Path: utzoo!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!morganucodon.cis.ohio-state.edu!jgreely From: jgreely@morganucodon.cis.ohio-state.edu (J Greely) Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk,comp.admin.policy Subject: Re: Ohio State University CIS Policies Message-ID: Date: 5 Jun 91 18:12:37 GMT References: <1991Jun3.165946.12637@eff.org> <1991Jun3.173550.13928@eff.org> <1991Jun3.232500.24850@ms.uky.edu> <1991Jun4.004016.20415@eff.org> Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Reply-To: J Greely Followup-To: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk Organization: Ohio State University Computer and Information Science Lines: 51 In-reply-to: kadie@eff.org's message of 4 Jun 91 00:40:16 GMT In article <1991Jun4.004016.20415@eff.org> kadie@eff.org (Carl Kadie) writes: >At most places and in most cases no formal hearing is necessary. As >you point out, an informal face-to-face conversation is usually >sufficent. The *right* to a formal hearing, however, is a necessary >check on the sys admin's power. Nothing in those policies overrides university rules. The student's rights are spelled out quite clearly elsewhere, and there's no reason to double the size of every policy document by repeating them. If the policies were in the form of a contract that each user had to sign before getting an account, *then* I'd agree that everything needs to be spelled out. Our posted policies are no different, really, than a "shoes required" sign outside the volleyball court. >Consider the situation at Ohio State. According to a sys admin >there, at least three students are being/were punished because a sys >admin thinks they are "real jerk[s]". I don't know who you're referring to, but for most of us, a user becomes categorized as a "real jerk" when he (or she, but almost always he...) manages to do stupid or abusive things often enough or serious enough to catch our attention. There are about 1200 undergraduate students on our system; you've *really* got to work at it to stand out. I recently found several megabytes of publicly- readable X-rated gifs in an account with a one meg quota. Do I think he's a jerk? You betcha. His punishment? I changed the perms on them and forwarded his name to the operator who takes care of over-quota users. Next time he comes to my attention, will I assume he's guilty of deliberate abuse? Probably not. This was pretty mild, and I wouldn't even have been annoyed if they hadn't been world-readable. >The students apparently have no way to appeal this judgement. This judgement is usually a one-time thing. If they don't make a habit of doing stupid or abusive things on the system, we'll never notice them again (2000 other users make excellent camouflage). >A student at Ohio State student tells me that users there are also >locked out (denied access to their computer account) when they are >wanted for a meeting. The difference is they are given no notice >before the lock out. Our department (I don't know about the many other groups who create student accounts) doesn't usually lock users out without notice unless we suspect someone's using an account to break into our system. Of course, a student who only logs in once every two weeks may miss an e-mail warning. -- J Greely (jgreely@cis.ohio-state.edu; osu-cis!jgreely)