[net.news.adm] Should news/mail access be given to students?

kurt@wucs.UUCP (Kurt Haserodt) (10/05/84)

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?

This is what we currently do:  the machines on which the students
(both undergrad and grad) do their work only receive very local
newsgroups and the students can (and are encouraged to) post to 
these.  Also while they can receive mail from anywhere they can
only send it to a select set of local machines.

Some students have access to research machines, and so all the
privileges this honor bestows (basically unlimited access to
the net and mail).  We try not to restrict these people in
any way (takes too much time--but if any of you have complaints
let me know).  Of course some of these students allow others
to use their accounts (again we like to be flexible here),
and so there is a group of students who HAVE access and a
much larger group who HAVE NOT (funny how this mimics life).

If you all will be so kind as to comment on this and/or tell me what
restrictions (if any) you use, I will be happy to post a summary
(though some discussion might be worthwhile).
-- 

Kurt Haserodt				..!ihnp4!wucs!kurt
Box 1045 Washington University		(314)-889-6160
St. Louis, MO 63130   USA

naftoli@aecom.UUCP (Robert N. Berlinger) (10/09/84)

> 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"