From: kadie@herodotus.cs.uiuc.edu (Carl M. Kadie)
Subject: [comp.admin.policy] Re: Banned Computer Material 1992
Followup-To: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk,comp.admin.policy
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 21:13:57 GMT

[A repost - Carl]

Newsgroups: comp.admin.policy
From: spam@iastate.edu (mike begley)
Subject: Re: Banned Computer Material 1992
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 02:49:13 GMT

In article <1992Sep30.182912.29524@mtek.com> bud@mtek.com writes:
>kadie@eff.org (Carl M. Kadie) writes:
>
>>Banned Computer Material 1992
>
>>Inspired by Banned Book Week '92, this is a list of computer material
>>banned or challenged in academia in 1992. Iowa State University has
>>the dubious distinction of being listed most often (three times).
>
>Ummm, the word "dubious" would seem to suggest that the enforcement
>of *any* local restriction against *any* action or speech in *any*
>academic computing environment, world-wide, is in violation of some
>"universal principle" that supercedes any locally-conceived ideas
>about how the owners wish to dispose the assets they are paying for.

it's a dubious honor, trust me...  Iowa State University has been
caught in a battle between its administration and its student for most
of a year regarding this issue.  The materials banned at ISU
(alt.sex*, rec.arts.erotica, and a few others) in no way violate the
Iowa Code (see section 728) and the restrictions were placed on the
system by the ISU computation Center administration with no input from
students and little if any from higher administration.  A "senior
official" personally told me that "the [ISU] computation center
administration had no business in making legal decisions because they
have no legal expertise".  The university administration is now caught
in a curious bind; defend the irresponsible actions one of it
departments, or uphold the tenants of academic freedom.  In some ways
it's become a turf war within the administration, with the students as
victims. So, despite the overwhelming student & faculty opposition to
the restrictions and the total lack of informed legal judgement, the
university continues to censor the "bad" newsgroup from students who
are quite old enough to make their own decisions.

>which device typically sets academics to howling wildly at the
>moon -- but perhaps only when aimed at their *own* several and
>peculiar sensibilities.

huh...funny, I don't even read any of the newsgroups...so it wasn't
aimed at any of my peciliar sensibilities.  Considering the state
motto of Iowa is "Our liberties we prize and our rights we shall
maintain", you would think that insuring freedom of expression
would be a basic goal of the state's universities; alas, they've
srunk from that duty.



-- 
Michael Begley             Ask me how           "the man and the woman were
spam@iastate.edu      Iowa State University        both naked, and they were
(515) 296-8378    is censoring my usenet access      not ashamed..." Gen:2.25
--
Carl Kadie -- kadie@cs.uiuc.edu -- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Newsgroups: alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk,comp.org.eff.talk,comp.admin.policy,alt.censorship,soc.college