IT.04.01
March 29, 2004
URBANA-CHAMPAIGN SENATE Committee on Information Technology
(Final; Action) IT.04.01, Proposed Modifications to Policy on Appropriate Use of Computers and Network Systems, Section 7.b BACKGROUND
Section 7.b of the Policy on Appropriate Use of Computers and Network Systems discussed News Services on the campus. In the past, Campus Information Technologies and Educational Services (CITES) ran a service for the campus called "news." CITES no longer runs "news" although they do provide similar services. Other groups are running "news" servers and the policy has been modified to more clearly define that "news" is a service rather than a specific product. The policy has also been modified to clarify that the policies apply to all campus groups running "news" services. An addition to the policy is that news groups may have charters that restrict topics to those within the charter. RECOMMENDATIONS
The Senate Committee on Information Technology recommends approval of the following revisions to the Policy on Appropriate Use of Computers and Network Systems, Section 7.b. Text to be deleted is in [square brackets] and text to be added is underscored. 7. Responsibilities in Managing UIUCnet
b) News Services*: CITES and other campus groups offer[s] news services, which may include news groups originating on- and off-campus, including commercially provided groups of interest to the campus community. Those running these services [CITES] will not review in advance or censor the content of the groups provided (except for ii below). However, if the presence of a news group is likely to impact campus services adversely or if a posting is in violation of law or university policy, the service provider [CITES] may elect not to distribute that news group or may elect to remove that submission [posting]. Examples might include [news] postings that violate copyright law or news groups that generate burdensome amounts of traffic on the network or campus computers.
- i) Which news groups are provided and the retention period for content [news postings] will be at the discretion of [CITES or] the unit providing the service [, based on input from the campus community and the availability of resources].
- ii) A news service* may be limited to specific subject areas as part of its posted charter; the moderator of a news service has the right to remove submissions that fall outside of the specific subject charter. For example, instructors [Professors] have the right to moderate their class discussions [newsgroups].
- iii) Content submission [A posting] that falsifies the identity of the individual making the submission [post] constitutes impersonation and thus violates University policy, as well as potentially violating laws and regulations. Members of the community using University resources are expected to identify themselves using their campus network ID. *News Services are defined as information sharing services which may include, but are not limited to, traditional news servers, chat rooms, bulletin boards, shared file systems, and discussion forums. Email listserves are not included in this definition.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
George Francis, Chair
Abbas Aminmansour
Joel Jordan
Ruth King
John Lawler
Dick Mintel
Randall S. Ott
David Padua
Donald Schmidt
Chuck Thompson
Tom Ward
Rich Mendola, Ex officio
Peter Siegel, Ex officio