🚀 go-pugleaf

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
 Wendy Neill
                  Subject:Re>Mudds and Talkers
                    "Whatever you do, work at it with all
                    your heart, as working for the Lord,
                    not for men."  Col 3:23

>I am interested in knowing how other institutions have dealt
>with similar situations and am interested in policies that have been
>implemented by others to try and alleviated such situations.

We do not allow games, MUDs, or chat programs in our labs.  We do not have
many complaints or violations of this policy. For us, it is much clearer and
easier to make a blanket policy than saying they are OK as long as the lab is
not full.  Like you said, most likely they will not step aside when someone
comes in really needing to use a computer.  They get very involved in the game
or the chat and don't want to quit in the middle.

I think it also comes down to your philosophy.  Our goal is to "Provide
technology resources to students that enable them to meet the educational
goals established by the faculty.  These resources should also empower
students to engage in self-learning through exploration and experimentation."
We feel that one person using the computer for games, chat programs, and MUDs
in many cases keeps someone else from using that resource for purposes more in
line with our goal.  If we had enough computers for everyone, it wouldn't be a
problem.  But we all have to deal with scarce resources and that requires some
restrictions on how they are used.

Issues like this are tough and each institution must decide how it fits into
their goals and purposes for providing computing resources for students.

Wendy Neill
Computer Lab Manager
Baylor University