Firewalls are common in corporations and other places where allowed services can be readily defined. They may only allow web and email access. Getting permission to gain additional access is often a long, drawn out procedure that often ends up with the request denied. This is logical and acceptable because most such organizations can quite narrowly define their access needs according to their business needs. An academic community thrives on diverse communications, new programs, and wide ranging applications of computer technology.
Various departments have widely different needs.
Networks are made for communicating and communication is a priority in the academic world. It would be very difficult to implement a firewall in the traditional manner here. In addition, the academic community is leading the way to permanently networked residence connections. Soon, cable modems and xDSL lines will provide network connections to home users on which the computers are always connected to the Internet. JMU presently has 8000 students connected in such a fashion.