The school doesn't have rights of an employer, but they still have rights. I'm only referring to state schools, as they're the only type I've worked at. There are all sorts of laws, regulations, and so forth that are promulgated by legislatures, boards, etc. Students agree to those when they come to school by signing various documents.
In the same vein, I don't believe landlord tenant law pertains to a state institution. To a great extent it will depend on the contract signed by the student for the dorm room. Possibilities of confiscation would also depend on the contract, whether the confiscation was done by a law officer, and so forth.
Again, the common carrier laws are unlikely to pertain to a state agency. As noted, all of the above can be different for a private institution.
I'll bet that students are informed of the directory and the policies relating thereto. I'll also bet that most students never pay attention to that kind of stuff. Every day I hear students whine that "I didn't know when the book was due, so how can I be responsible for it being overdue, and I can't pay the fine, and...." when they were given a printed date due receipt for the book and were also told when the book was checked out when it was due. I'm sure cops hear the same thing every day: "I didn't know I couldn't go fifty in a school zone and didn't see no sign and...."
Yes, they should know. But is there anyway of being sure they read, paid attention, etc? Of course not.
I'm guessing you attend a private school, rather than a public one. A private school can do whatever they want. I know of a couple of private colleges in my area that filter, since that fits with the religious/moral views of the denomination running the school. I'm guessing that any students who chose to go there were aware of the values they endorse there and shouldn't be surprised.
Sure, they want to make donors happy, alumni happy, and so forth. To coin a phrase,
As others have noted, there are both privacy and network security issues involved, and it is tough to find a middle ground that will make everybody happy. There is also the issue of your rights to user your fist ending before it hits my face.
I'm a university librarian and a network administrator, and have been in both of these areas since punched cards (and an RJE terminal and an ASR-33 TTY was the network). I'm extremely strong on freedom of speech, and would make no speech illegal. I also support the second amendment, as well as the first. All that being said, he who owns the sandbox makes the rules for those who play in it. Even Charlie Brown can take his football and go home.
If you go to a private college, your tuition and fees pays most, but not all, of the costs. If you go to a public college, the fees and tuition probably pay less than half of the cost. The rest comes from donors and taxpayers (yes, you're a taxpayer, too, but your contribution by that means is trivial).
We all want the network to be incredibly fast and reliable, but those cost money, and if you're using it all on MP3s or whatever, then someone else is hurting. Those hurting may be other students trying to access remote databases for full text journal articles (my university has almost 80 of them, in all fields). If your buddies are clobbering the network with DoS attacks, with high bandwidth games, with MP3s, or whatever, then you're going to have a hell of a time getting those articles from the ACM Digital Library that you need for your paper that is due tomorrow. Then who's pissed off?
As far as privacy goes, I've never heard of a university that routinely monitored anyone's email. They reserve the RIGHT to do so, the same as they reserve the RIGHT to check your dorm room. Having the rights and exercising them are two different things. Do some universities abuse these rights? Probably, on occasion. Are these regular events? Not bloody likely. But I can't deny that the world is full of assholes. Just think of the hundreds of MB of email that is passing through the various mail servers. Who the hell could possibly try to read it all, and why would they want to? Then multiply that by all the other types of traffic, and you see it quickly becomes impossible for all practical purposes.
Now if it has been reported that Joe Blow is sending threatening emails to GWBush, then you can be damn sure that there will be quick action to check on what Joe Blow has been sending. We had something similar on our campus a couple years ago, except the threats were to the university president. Yes, the mail was tracked and action was taken. Sending the college president an email that you don't like his policies is fine; threatening to blow up his house with him and his kids in it isn't.
Similarly, in our university library recently a guy was looking at kiddie porn. When it was reported to me I checked the proxy server logs (all public workstations run thru a proxy server to block access to free email, games, and chat...you can do those things in over a dozen computer labs, but the library doesn't have room for other than research workstations...and we do NOT block content, you're welcome to look at porn if you wish). I clicked up some of the sites he was viewing, and they did indeed appear to be adult males engaging in sex with pre-pubescent females (and not just adult women in pigtails and cheerleader skirts with shaved pussies). So, after checking with my boss, I called the sheriff, who provides campus security. The deputy came over, personally watched him looking at kiddie porn, took my report of what happened and what IP numbers were on the computers he was using, took a zip disk full of the last four days of proxy logs, and took the guy away in cuffs. I don't know what has happened since; he may not have been prosecuted, but I'm sure he won't be back in the library. Some staff complained that "we didn't warn him" and that he "might not know it was illegal", but since some of his searches were for "illegal kiddie porn", it seemed he knew what he was doing. Plus, ignorance of the law is still no excuse. (Gee, officer, I didn't know I couldn't shoot my stupid wife, she deserved it, and.....)
In at least 44 states there is a state law forbidding the disclosure of ANY information on what books anyone has checked out to ANY other person without a court order. I've enforced that, including when cops were trying to weasel info out of us on who checked out books on explosives after a student bar was blown up near campus. They never did get a court order, and never searched our records. They did arrest the criminal, a non-student who did it for hire, as the bar owner wanted to collect on insurance before he went bankrupt. For the same reason, all library notices are sent in sealed envelopes. Would you want your wife to see the overdue notice that you hadn't returned "How to get a quickie divorce" and "The Joy of gay sex"? I kept a number of students from being hassled by the law.
I can also say that over the years I've told many faculty and administrators and parents (as well as other students) that they couldn't see who checked what out, even if the student was under 18. We keep a copy of the law available for their review. Of course other campus offices do the same due to FERPA and other federal and state laws.
Remember, invading your privacy on campus is not something done lightly or without cause. Control of bandwidth is done for the benefit of all. Speed limits are also for the benefit of all, even though I often get pissed off at them when I've got a good, clear, open road in good weather and no traffic and the limit is 55. But when I get busted I pay, and don't whine. I made the choice.
Is life always fair or the way you want it? Hell no. If your mama promised you that it would be, she was either lying or terminally stupid.
Slashdot Mirror
In the same vein, I don't believe landlord tenant law pertains to a state institution. To a great extent it will depend on the contract signed by the student for the dorm room. Possibilities of confiscation would also depend on the contract, whether the confiscation was done by a law officer, and so forth.
Again, the common carrier laws are unlikely to pertain to a state agency. As noted, all of the above can be different for a private institution.
Yes, they should know. But is there anyway of being sure they read, paid attention, etc? Of course not.
Sure, they want to make donors happy, alumni happy, and so forth. To coin a phrase,
Money Talks, Bullshit Walks.
I'm a university librarian and a network administrator, and have been in both of these areas since punched cards (and an RJE terminal and an ASR-33 TTY was the network). I'm extremely strong on freedom of speech, and would make no speech illegal. I also support the second amendment, as well as the first. All that being said, he who owns the sandbox makes the rules for those who play in it. Even Charlie Brown can take his football and go home.
If you go to a private college, your tuition and fees pays most, but not all, of the costs. If you go to a public college, the fees and tuition probably pay less than half of the cost. The rest comes from donors and taxpayers (yes, you're a taxpayer, too, but your contribution by that means is trivial).
We all want the network to be incredibly fast and reliable, but those cost money, and if you're using it all on MP3s or whatever, then someone else is hurting. Those hurting may be other students trying to access remote databases for full text journal articles (my university has almost 80 of them, in all fields). If your buddies are clobbering the network with DoS attacks, with high bandwidth games, with MP3s, or whatever, then you're going to have a hell of a time getting those articles from the ACM Digital Library that you need for your paper that is due tomorrow. Then who's pissed off?
As far as privacy goes, I've never heard of a university that routinely monitored anyone's email. They reserve the RIGHT to do so, the same as they reserve the RIGHT to check your dorm room. Having the rights and exercising them are two different things. Do some universities abuse these rights? Probably, on occasion. Are these regular events? Not bloody likely. But I can't deny that the world is full of assholes. Just think of the hundreds of MB of email that is passing through the various mail servers. Who the hell could possibly try to read it all, and why would they want to? Then multiply that by all the other types of traffic, and you see it quickly becomes impossible for all practical purposes.
Now if it has been reported that Joe Blow is sending threatening emails to GWBush, then you can be damn sure that there will be quick action to check on what Joe Blow has been sending. We had something similar on our campus a couple years ago, except the threats were to the university president. Yes, the mail was tracked and action was taken. Sending the college president an email that you don't like his policies is fine; threatening to blow up his house with him and his kids in it isn't.
Similarly, in our university library recently a guy was looking at kiddie porn. When it was reported to me I checked the proxy server logs (all public workstations run thru a proxy server to block access to free email, games, and chat...you can do those things in over a dozen computer labs, but the library doesn't have room for other than research workstations...and we do NOT block content, you're welcome to look at porn if you wish). I clicked up some of the sites he was viewing, and they did indeed appear to be adult males engaging in sex with pre-pubescent females (and not just adult women in pigtails and cheerleader skirts with shaved pussies). So, after checking with my boss, I called the sheriff, who provides campus security. The deputy came over, personally watched him looking at kiddie porn, took my report of what happened and what IP numbers were on the computers he was using, took a zip disk full of the last four days of proxy logs, and took the guy away in cuffs. I don't know what has happened since; he may not have been prosecuted, but I'm sure he won't be back in the library. Some staff complained that "we didn't warn him" and that he "might not know it was illegal", but since some of his searches were for "illegal kiddie porn", it seemed he knew what he was doing. Plus, ignorance of the law is still no excuse. (Gee, officer, I didn't know I couldn't shoot my stupid wife, she deserved it, and.....)
In at least 44 states there is a state law forbidding the disclosure of ANY information on what books anyone has checked out to ANY other person without a court order. I've enforced that, including when cops were trying to weasel info out of us on who checked out books on explosives after a student bar was blown up near campus. They never did get a court order, and never searched our records. They did arrest the criminal, a non-student who did it for hire, as the bar owner wanted to collect on insurance before he went bankrupt. For the same reason, all library notices are sent in sealed envelopes. Would you want your wife to see the overdue notice that you hadn't returned "How to get a quickie divorce" and "The Joy of gay sex"? I kept a number of students from being hassled by the law.
I can also say that over the years I've told many faculty and administrators and parents (as well as other students) that they couldn't see who checked what out, even if the student was under 18. We keep a copy of the law available for their review. Of course other campus offices do the same due to FERPA and other federal and state laws.
Remember, invading your privacy on campus is not something done lightly or without cause. Control of bandwidth is done for the benefit of all. Speed limits are also for the benefit of all, even though I often get pissed off at them when I've got a good, clear, open road in good weather and no traffic and the limit is 55. But when I get busted I pay, and don't whine. I made the choice.
Is life always fair or the way you want it? Hell no. If your mama promised you that it would be, she was either lying or terminally stupid.
dan@riverofdata.com
Yes, I posted a real address to a real domain.