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New Hours Cause Problems for Students
by Heather Tourtellotte
Mars Hill students fought for the right to a 24-hour computer lab and won. Now because a few students allegedly didn't follow rules, they may have to fight again.
After conferring with the head of computer services, library staff, and Dean Craig Goforth, Interim President Dan Lunsford decided that the late night behavior was inappropriate. The solution was closing the lab before midnight.
The lab now opens Monday through Thursday 7:45 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Friday 7:45 a.m. to 5 p.m. Weekend hours are Saturday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Sunday 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. These coincide with new library hours.
Lunsford stated in an e-mail on August 23, 2002, "The rationale for decreasing the number of open-hours for the lab is that all dorms are now hard-wired, and our previous assessment of the 24-hour lab indicates minimum academic use between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m."
For some students however, late night access to computers is still critical. The dorms may be hard-wired, giving students the chance to have their own computers. But many don't have a computer. Some may use their roommate's computer, but the roommate gets top priority. According to Gerald Ball, director of ITS, there are no statistics on how many students have their own computer on campus. And while there was a study on late night use of the library, no study has assessed how many people used the computer labs after midnight, Ball said.
Students who don't own computers found a 24/7 lab neccessary.
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SGA has addressed the issues in two meetings now because of the strong student reaction to the new hours. The biggest issue is the viewing and printing of pornography. Some vandalism has also been mentioned.
"Pictures of naked women have been found in the trashcans in Lab B, as well as in the men's bathroom," said Teresa Hensley, the custodian for the library. Pictures have also been found in the printer in Lab B.
Also some people have damaged walls and carved on the old desks. Squashed beer cans have been found in the sanitary napkin disposal in the women's bathroom, as well as in the light fixtures of the boy's bathroom.
Whenever Hensley found the pornographic pictures, she brought them to Librarian Donna Seymour, who then brought the problem to Dean Goforth's attention. "It's less than 5 students not playing by the rules." Said Dean Goforth. We cannot just do nothing. "Its not acceptable," he stated.
According to the current student handbook " Students will not use the Network to view, or store obscene materials" (Pg. 12, bullet 5).
Other than the fact that it's against Mars Hill College's policy, pornography can offend another student. This is considered a form of harassment and can lead to lawsuits. A person can be offended just by seeing it on the computer, whether it was volunteer or not. "If someone sees someone looking at pornography they can call the campus police," said Jill Atkins, the Student Body Vice-President.
When the subject of the new computer lab hours was brought up again during the SGA meeting on September 5, 2002. Dr. Lunsford said, "We had to deal with the environment that had developed in the computer labs after midnight - after 11:00". He also added, "This is totally unacceptable to me and to the campus for that kind of behavior and activities to occur, so we made the decision to amend those hours. We recognize that it is something of an inconvenience".
Some students and even faculty, however question how serious the problem really is. Most of the problems occurred in Lab B according to Hensley. Ben Kearns, Public Services Librarian says that after they started closing Lab B at 9 p.m. last semester, the instances only happened a few times.
Students and faculty are looking for solutions. It has been found that putting filters on the computers so students can't access pornographic sites doesn't always work, because there are ways around the filters. One monitor camera is installed in computer Lab C, but it only watches the door, and somebody has to watch the camera.
Other suggestions are assigning student work-study jobs supervising the computer lab during the later hours of the night and on weekends. Students would have to sign in and show their ID card to be allowed in. The problem with work-study jobs is that after a while the student worker stops coming. Another possibility is to have a box that will scan student ID cards when students come into the computer lab. This way only Mars Hill College students will be allowed in during the later hours.
Students Reactions About Computer Lab hours
Students Dispute New Lab Hours
Story by Richard Carrington
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