Institute, at CU, looks at the tangled digital Web

By Bill Steele

Does a university have the right to restrict what students put on their Web pages? Should it? Can it change the way students think about downloading music? Should it? Is spam just a nuisance, or is it free speech? What is Congress going to throw at us next?

Steve Worona, center, former assistant to Cornell's vice president for information technologies and one of the creators of, among other things, Uncle Ezra and the Cornell e-mail address format, is now director of policy and networking programs at EDUCAUSE in Washington, D.C. He returns to campus every year to co-direct the annual Computer Policy and Law Institute, and here, during a break in the four-day event, he chats with fellow institute presenters, from left, Internet 2 security specialist Rodney Petersen, EDUCAUSE; Tracy Mitrano, director of IT policy at Cornell and co-director of the institute; copyright expert Georgia Harper from the University of Texas System, and Steve McDonald, general counsel for the Rhode Island School of Design. Frank DiMeo/University Photography

These are just a few of the questions university administrators have to answer in the digital age -- which is why 51 college and university information officers, lawyers, techies and policymakers gathered at Cornell July 6-9 for the ninth annual Institute for Computer Policy and Law, a short course offered by the Cornell School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions and co-sponsored by EDUCAUSE, a national organization devoted to encouraging the use of information technology and other new technologies in education.

The event often raises more questions than it answers, but at least sends participants home with ammunition for the policy decisions they have to make. "Policies" are the rules institutions set for themselves. Sometimes they're just ways of spelling out what the institution has to do to comply with the law; sometimes they go beyond what the law requires -- as with Cornell's policy guaranteeing the privacy of e-mail. In any case, those who write the policies have to be familiar with the law, and also have to take into account current social expectations. To provide the needed expertise, this year's program included a distinguished faculty of 16 lawyers and university faculty and administrators. Among others, a panel on the USA Patriot Act featured Mark Eckenwiler of the U.S. Department of Justice.

The annual event was created by the Cornell Institute for Computer Policy and Law, which in 2002 became a joint project of Cornell and EDUCAUSE. Tracy Mitrano, director of IT policy at Cornell, and Steve Worona, director of policy and networking programs at EDUCAUSE, are co-directors.

Participants come from as far away as California and as near as Wells College. Many come for repeat sessions. Jeff Rehbach from Middlebury College in Vermont showed up this year for the second time. Rehbach, who is a Cornell alumnus ('75, M.A. '82), said it is necessary to keep up with new legislation. Will McCracken from Wells College came to find out about new technologies and software, but added that the biggest value is the opportunity to trade ideas with other people who share the same problems.

Sessions this year included discussions of spam control methods, an extensive review of copyright law, including the new Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and discussions of the conflicts between the USA Patriot Act and laws that protect student privacy. Upcoming federal legislation and a proposal that the United Nations take over governance of the Internet were hot topics, and a lively role-playing session dramatized the problems that arise when students use their Internet access to publish information the faculty would rather not see.

One of the new concerns this year was security policy, as administrators struggle to cope with viruses and hackers without becoming intrusive to network users.

Details on the program may be found at http://www.sce.cornell.edu/exec/cpl.php.