We are proposing to use certificates for authentication, perhaps for authorization. We may encrypt sessions, but don't expect to encrypt data with this software. Nothing would prevent a campus or a user from buying the software needed to encrypt data, but it probably wouldn't use the Netscape certificate. Security must be part of the larger infrastructure. We plan to document those parts of the infrastructure that need to interface with security and how various security architectures accomplish that.
Public key is a system for trust among strangers rather than trust among friends.
What PKI really offers is control of granularity of trust which we will need based on whether we are dealing with students, staff, privileged roles, etc. We need a lot more experience with certificates before we are ready to propose how to use that granularity. We have a two track work plan with one track being investigating certificates and the other being correcting deficiencies in current protection.