Newsgroups: comp.admin.policy
Subject:   Re: Game Playing
Date: Fri, 18 Feb 1994 17:14:19
Message-ID: <0097A40A.0F758FA0@Msu.oscs.montana.edu>

>  The following is a first draft of A STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES on
>  APPROPRIATE USE OF COMPUTER FACILITIES to guide our consideration of
>  this situation.  Comments?

I would specify that games are not explicitly forbidden by your
policy (if, in fact, they're not forbidden), though they must not
interfere with other appropriate uses of the computers.  By not
specifying that games are *not forbidden*, you leave the door open
for an administrator to arbitrarily (and perhaps unfairly) forbid
them.  It's happened here at MSU.

>1.   The computer and telecommunications facilities of the Indiana
>     State University are resources supported by public funds and
>     by student tuition and fees and are intended to support the
>     scholarly mission of the University.

[SOAPBOX]
I'm not sure how broad you want to make this "Statement of Principles,"
but you might mention that recreational use of computers is okay as
long as it doesn't interfere with the academic mission of the 
university.  By analogy, students pay mandatory fees for intramural and
varsity athletics at many schools, implying that recreation has a
legitimate role in university life.  And intramural athletics often
uses facilities which were built for other uses but which are
idle--the facilities are not being used for those primary uses, so
intramurals is not interfering.  Similarly, recreational computer
usage should explicitly be allowed by "acceptable use" policies, so long
as it does not noticibly interfere with academic uses.
[soapbox]

On the other topic - of game policies for PC labs - we just put up signs
saying "These computers are for acadmic use.  Games take second priority.
Anyone who needs to use these computers for academic reasons has the
right to ask game players to move or leave."  With such dire warnings in
place, other users are more likely to just ask the DOOM-players to be
quieter.  Without any intervention from lab supervisors. :-)

 - Mark

========== Disclaimer: I reserve the right to make my own mistakes! ==========
Mark Wistey: mark@ece.ee.montana.edu, ECE::MARK  | Christ-like living, Music,
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