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Show 10 - The Daily Utah Wednesday, February 24, 1998 Chronicle CENSORSHIP college's resources. continued from page 8 University of Utah have no plans to institute a filtering system. According to Ralph Kranz, the head of the multimedia center at the Marriott Library, the U's policy is geared Computer administrators at the half of all Internet images are A controverpornography-relatesial study conducted by an undergraduate student at Carnegie Mellon University put the number as high d. toward guaranteeing "freedom of access" and the privacy rights of its bothering me.' And we just tell them not to look at it if it bothers them. Sometimes we'll tell people to move," said Ariel Holley, who works as a consultant in the Marriott lab. Kranz says that as a research institution, the U must allow patrons to access all kinds of information, even things that might make some people uncomfortable. He said before coming to the U, he worked at a college for and some people at that institution were upset that the library carried the film "Birth of a Nation," which portrays African Americans as being inferior to whites. But, Kranz says, the film is considered an essential part of a film studies curriculum, so it can't be disregarded even if it is offensive. Administrators don't plan to consider monitoring students' use of computers, partly because they feel it would infringe on the privacy rights of surfers and researchers f Chronicle Photography: J African-American- s, One commentator said that, for students, getting access to pornography on a computer is like riding the bus to an adult theater. Children can still access the theater, even if the school bus doesn't go there. as about 80 percent for some Usenet servers. Although that study has come under fire for its allegedly questionable methodology, the numbers it obtained were instrumental in getting national lawmakers fired up about the issue. On both the national and local level, policy makers arc starting to address access to pornography on the Internet. It's a case of First Amendment rights vs. community standards. And on college campuses, it's becoming an issue of students' rights and wants weighing in against administrator's' authority. Private colleges can restrict students' freedom of speech because they don't receive funding from the government. These schools arc not restricted by the Constitution in the same way public institutions are. However, at a government-funde- d institution, such restrictions arc seen by some as an invasion of freedom. Snow College, in Eastern Utah, recently became one of the first colleges in the nation to place filters on its computers. According to a press release issued by the school, the ban was necessary because "several pornography problems emerged on campus." The filters also limit the potential for using the computers to play games; part of the rationale for the decision was a belief that students were wasting time and the users. Kranz stresses that the multimedia center's staff expects students to use the facilities wisely, but says it's not in consultant's' job description to police students nor should it be. "It's up to our patrons to make their own decisions as to what they want to access," he says. He says the staff will only intervene in cases in which users arc doing something illegal or unnecessarily tying up resources. Although he disagrees with Snow College's decision to implement filters, Kranz agrees with the philoso- - I 1 l i Qrab Every 1 I JH A alike. Kranz says he would rather see people encourage each other to make good use of their computer time, rather than censoring each other. And if some arc offended by material available on the Internet, they should think about their reactions in a more positive light. For many Internet users, access- - "You have to defend everyone's rights, even if you don't agree with them." Ralph Kranz, head of the Marriott Library's multimedia center phy of Snow College's filter decision in this respect. He said he hopes students won't use the computers in the lab for any kind of recreation, including games and pornography, during peak use hours. But as far as monitoring students' use of the facilities goes, none of the computer consultants will confront a student in the lab. "A lot of times we have students coming up and saying, 'someone next to me is looking at this pornography and it's ) ing any kind of information is ultimately an issue of rights. "You have to defend everyone's rights, even if you don't agree with them," Kranz says. Research universities, he says, are a valuable source of informationany kind of information. "The difference between a public library and a research library is that here, you should find something that irritates you," he says. "We'd rather err on the side of too much than too little." m FA T T Chronicle The Daily Utah Chronicle is an independent student newspaper published daily Monday through Friday during Fall and Spring semesters (excluding test weeks and holidays) and weekly during Summer Term. Chronicle editors and staff are University of Utah students and are solely responsible for the newspaper's content. Funding comes from advertising revenues and a dedicated student fee administered by the Publications Council. Subscriptions must be prepaid. Forward all subscription correspondence, including change of address, to the Business Manager. To respond with your questions, comments or complaints call (801) or visit chronicle.utah.edu on the World Wide Web. 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