Internet Curfew for College Students?

140Mandak262Jamuna writes "IIT Bombay, one of the top Indian engineering schools, is restricting internet access to its students. The restriction is simply to cut off all internet access at night from the dorms. The school claims the 24/7/365 internet access is hampering academic performance, personality development and extra curricular activities. Though these are the 'official' reasons, it appears there are other reasons too. Mr Prakash Gopalan, the Dean of Student Affairs, says, 'one only had to look at the hard drive of any of the students' computers to see that bad content dominated over good.'"

One more college differentiator

[davidwr (791652)]

Now in addition to tuition, sports, and *gasp* quality of education, students will select schools based on Internet availability.

Whatever allows you finer granularity in deciding

[an.echte.trilingue (1063180)]

Now in addition to tuition, sports, and *gasp* quality of education, students will select schools based on Internet availability.

I think that probably internet connectivity and and quality of education are related. I know that I work and learn best between 8:00PM and midnight, and the labs at school are usually nice and quiet on Friday and Saturday evenings. It would be a shame not to be able to take advantage of my work cycle.

Now, if they filtered slashdot, I would spend way more time learning...

Same..

[CasperIV (1013029)]

I don't think I would attend a school that tried to restrict my internet access or had a poor infrastructure. If I'm going to school, and paying a fortune to attend, I expect to have access to every tool I might need any time I might need it (barring physical limitations).

By the time you reach college you should be self sufficient enough to manage your own affairs. If your not, you deserve what you get (fail/get pregnant/have a kid/get arrested/etc). It's not the schools place to babysit the students at this level.

Re:

[Score Whore (32328)]

If I'm going to school, and paying a fortune to attend, I expect to have access to every tool I might need any time I might need it (barring physical limitations).

As a taxpayer I expect that my state funded schools exist to serve the purpose of education. Since that appears to be your goal as well I think we should form a coalition to achieve this purpose. Our platform can be:

1) Internet banwidth is provided for the purpose of education. Any educational use that is associated with the student's current cour

Re:

[rodoke3 (681504)]

As long as you add: 6) No student may be compelled to subscribe to university internet access, or any internet access. 7) The university shall not penalize students in any fashion for observing 6). 8) The university shall provide no unreasonable barriers to private service to their students. I will happily join your "coalition". As a fellow taxpayer, I feel the same way. If students want to waste time, I say let them do it on their own dime. You with me?

Re:

[Percy_Blakeney (542178)]

Universities aren't in the business of providing internet access.

Of course they are. Go to any university and ask the person responsible for filling the dorms what would happen if they cut off Internet access. They realize very well that internet access in a dorm room is considered essential, and that the demand for dorm rooms will take a hit if they don't have it. It's become a basic cost of doing business.

At a university where they have both types of usage on the same networks, it may well be that

Re:Same..

[morcego (260031)]

You don't think college students should be self-sufficient enough to manage their own affairs? I'll agree that most of them probably aren't (and I'll admit there are things I could have managed better when I was a student), but they're adults, they really ought to be.

Well, "should" really doesn't many any difference, does it ? As far as I'm concerned, they should be at 12.

If not, perhaps we ought to raise the legal age of adulthood and make sure all these kids have guardians until they graduate?

Most are not "adult" enough to manage their own affairs by the time they graduate, either.

Then again, unless at some point they do start trying to do it (and fail), they will never learn. Managing one own life is something you only learn from experience (making mistakes), as far as I'm concerned.

The main difference is between supervision and "control". The Internet Curfew is not supervision or education, it is control. The only thing resulting from this is people how are even less capable or managing their own affairs. So, IN THIS PARTICULAR case:

Supervision = good
Control = bad

Re:

[Redlazer (786403)]

The reason they are freeze when they get a problem, is probably because thats what they where trained to do.

I know that in most of my jobs, if i where to use my intuition and try and solve the problem on my own, i would probably have ended up doing something wrong in the bosses eyes, and i would either get yelled at or fired.

In fact, i can think of numerous examples where i DID take the initiative, and solved a problem on my own, and i was told off for it. It was immensely frustrating - here i was doing

Internet access is integral to education...

[Short Circuit (52384)]

Eh? What about those of us whose extracurricular [grc4.org] activities [rosettacode.org] depend on the Internet? And those of us who colleges offer courses online? Those of us who take classes in the evening, and catch up with our social lives afterward?

Glad I don't live in a dorm.

Re:

[jcorno (889560)]

I never started writing a paper more than 12 hours before it was due. That policy would've screwed me over pretty good. These people act like they've never heard of an all-nighter before.

Re:Internet access is integral to education...

[westlake (615356)]

These people act like they've never heard of an all-nighter before.

or maybe after seeing the end product of an all-nighter they want to put an end to it.

Re:Internet access is integral to education...

[markov_chain (202465)]

Without access in dorms, you would just get your lazy bum ass to a lab and do your paper writing there. The awesome social side benefit of this is bonding with other people in the same situation. Only the motivated ones would be in the lab anyway, so this is a great opportunity to create a high quality network.

Re:Internet access is integral to education...

[markov_chain (202465)]

with people like you who are there to socialize.

This reply is what happens when you let people play WoW all night: reasoning abilities and reading comprehension suffer.

Re:Internet access is integral to education...

[lucabrasi999 (585141)]

So how is writing papers with no or severely limited research materials going for you?

Just where in the article did it say the students couldn't do their work in the library?

Re:

[lucabrasi999 (585141)]

And why are you assuming all college libraries are open 24 hours?

I never assume. Instead, I do something that you apparently don't. I read the FA --

Ms Thosar-Dixit said students would not have access to the internet in their hostel rooms between 2300 and 1230 but could log on in the library or their departmental laboratories where access will be uninterrupted.

Re:Internet access is integral to education...

[lucabrasi999 (585141)]

but if I had to trek to the campus library every time I needed to cite a reference

...you would have been doing the same thing as Albert Einstein. Or Copernicus. Or Plato.

Would they care?

[Moraelin (679338)]

Eh? What about those of us whose extracurricular activities depend on the Internet? And those of us who colleges offer courses online? Those of us who take classes in the evening, and catch up with our social lives afterward?

The problem there is that you expect them to be sane and logical about it. If they actually wanted to block "bad content", there would have been lots of other possibilities, like just blocking the porn sites at the proxy. Most companies do that.

In reality it's a knee jerk "think of the

What about this?

[lucabrasi999 (585141)]

The facilities offered here are top-notch and there are very few engineering institutes in India that offer unlimited access to internet in hostels at all times for all days of the year.......IIT Madras put limits on internet usage more than a year now.Students do not have any net access in their hostel rooms from 0100 to 0500.

So why is it bad when IIT-Bombay limits access?

Re:

[warpEngine (953166)]

I'm at IIT-Bombay student, so I can answer that. There haven't been enough computers in labs for *years*, and the authorities have only been sitting on their ass. The ones that are there are down as often as they're up, and many machines are underpowered. And one of our labs is not air-conditioned and gets blistering hot in the summer...

So we buy our own systems. And now they turn off network access at nights. Great going.

Most of us need all-night access before submissions, and to work on our projects,

Squishie

[Stanistani (808333)]

>'one only had to look at the hard drive of any of the students' computers to see that bad content dominated over good.'

It's a sad commentary about the Simpsons' effect on our culture - that I can only hear Apu's voice when I read this.

Re:Squishie

[cayenne8 (626475)]

First thing I wondered is...what the HELL is that administrator doing looking at students' harddrives??

Sounds like some bad snooping going on there.

"It's a sad commentary about the Simpsons' effect on our culture - that I can only hear Apu's voice when I read this."

Heheh...me too...something like "Thank You! Surf again...."

Bad Content

[flynt (248848)]

That's because bad content is correlated with very large file sizes. Seriously, how long will this last?

Personality development

[morgan_greywolf (835522)]

I had 24/7/365 Net xs when I wuz in coll3g3!!! I turn3d 0ut ju5t f1ne!!! LOL!!!!

Uhhh

[brkello (642429)]

So now they download their pr0n during the day instead of at night. Instead of engaging in wholesome activities like playing CS:Source, they will go out drinking and fornicating. College students are going to find ways to be lazy no matter what you do. Just because you can track Internet usage and can't track the other stuff doesn't mean the solution is to cut off the Internet. You are just punishing people who could be using it to further their education.

In any case, I feel sorry for them because clearly they have stupid people in charge. But, on the plus side, they get some real world experience dealing with stupid people making decisions they have no say in.

Re:

[Vengeance (46019)]

Yup, sounds just right for preparing engineering students for the business world. There are lots of MBAs out there, you know.

Re:Uhhh

[Hoi Polloi (522990)]

It'll just pose a challenge to their CS and EE students. Just wait until they start rigging up wireless links to outside connections. I welcome our new Indian hackers.

I Spy

[Nom du Keyboard (633989)]

'one only had to look at the hard drive of any of the students' computers to see that bad content dominated over good.'"

Oh, so they're spying on the hard drives of their students now. Bad University! Bad! Have you been taking lessons from the RIAA?

Poor Preparation For Life Experience

[endianx (1006895)]

If you can't handle college without having the administration trying to force you to work, you aren't going to be able to handle a job. Your boss isn't going to hold your hand. Letting the people spend time on the internet instead of studying weeds out the lazy and promotes the hard working. If you aren't going to make it in your field, it is best you find out quickly, instead of after years of wasted money on college.

I have heard time and time again about Indian education (specifically Computer Science) failing to adequately prepare students for real life. This seems like another example of that.

Re:Poor Preparation For Life Experience

[Bastard of Subhumani (827601)]

Why wouldn't they just get off of their lazy asses and head to the library?

A wild guess here - because even in India, it's not generally considered good form to wank in the libtrary?

Re:Poor Preparation For Life Experience

[lucabrasi999 (585141)]

The point is they are trying to take away a source of entertainment so that the students will engage in more productive activities. The problem is that once they are out of school, the banned sources of entertainment will again become available, and the student will not have learned any self control.

Did you read the article from top to bottom? As I posted in this same discussion, MOST of the university campuses in India do not offer hostel (dorm-room) internet access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In fact, IIT-Madras pulled the access away from the dorms one year ago.

Part of the problem in dorm life is that you put up with the university's rules. If you don't like the rules, move out of the dorm or change to another university.

Take someone that attends a US Military College like West Point. They put up with rules like early morning revile and exercise. But, they receive one of the best educations in the world (of course, as soon as they leave West Point, they are headed to Iraq--but that is another discussion thread).

If you are reading this and you are a student at IIT-Bombay (Mumbai) that happens to disagree with your school's new policy, then you have three choices:

1) Do all of you late-night studying in the library.

2) Move out of your student dormitory.

3) or change schools.

There. Problem solved. And, stop wasting your energies on slashdot submissions.

Re:Poor Preparation For Life Experience

[junglee_iitk (651040)]

If you don't like the rules, move out of the dorm or change to another university.

Only none of which is feasible.
1. I am an alumni of IIT-Kanpur (as my handle suggests), and the rule is that if you are a student, you HAVE to live in dorms. I know that same rule applies in IT-BHU.
2. Change university? Are you kidding me? And in NOT-AT-ALL individualistic society, you get to leave one of the only best institutes, when all these institutes share exactly one admission procedure (JEE)? Next thing you will be telling is to have sex in public in India.

Won't Work

[Paulrothrock (685079)]

College students are masters of getting what they want despite rules and regulations. Some enterprising group of CS students will go around caching web sites or host forums off of their computers (or the CS lab computers) and the word will get out about where folks can go to be "on the internet" between dusk and dawn.

Of course, there's always game systems, iPods, and off-campus wireless networks for people to use.

The best thing to do would be to raise the requirements for classes, thus forcing people to have to study more, and require participation in an extra-curricular activity as a requirement for graduation. Or you could just realize that socialization patterns are changing and deal with it.

Solution

[daeg (828071)]

$ du -hLs /home/daeg/porn
18G /home/daeg/porn

$ du -hLs /home/daeg/school
29M /home/daeg/school

Ack! Quick, everyone symlink your porn directory into your school directory!

Re:Solution

[by Anonymous Coward]

I remember when I was at IIT how students used to burn p0rn CDs and write 'RedHat Linux 7.2' on it. Others (esp. non-CS students) scared of Linux usability never used to lay their hands on them.

Not the solution, but the problem is real

[xerxesnine (1078469)]

Several years ago I had a (relatively short) spat of addiction to Neverwinter Nights. During a random conversation with my online mates one night, I was rather shocked to discover that most of them were in college. I myself had graduated college several years ago and had solid high-salary job. My Neverwinter hobby/addiction was just a brief fascination --- something to do in between girlfriends.

There is so much studying and socializing to do while in college, I honestly can't imagine playing any online game during college. That is why I was shocked --- I was like, what the FUCK are you doing playing Neverwinter Nights? We had been playing around 4 hours a day. College is a key time to improve oneself, and they had been squandering that time. While I was squandering my own time as well, the difference was that the impact on my life was one hell of a lot less (negligible, in fact).

Re:

[slashrogue (775436)]

You say that as if those students didn't presume that the impact on their life was also negligible.

Re:

[raehl (609729)]

There is so much studying and socializing to do while in college, I honestly can't imagine playing any online game during college.

Well, you've got to do SOMETHING until you're old enough to get into the bar....

Who says they're squandering?

[phorm (591458)]

Consider the number of college students that go out and "booze it up, etc, etc", perhaps rather than doing this, they're spending some time online playing a game. It doesn't necessarily mean that they are neglecting their studies, but rather that they are taking some time here and there to wind down and enjoy a nice game.

I tended to do the full-burn thing early-on, finish my assignments, and then kick back for a game of Quake 2/3 or various others when I was in college. It was a great way to relieve stres

Small problem with the quote, so I fixed it

[Grashnak (1003791)]

"IIT Bombay, one of the top Indian engineering schools, is restricting beer access to its students. The restriction is simply to cut off all access to beer at night from the dorms. The school claims the 24/7/365 beer access is hampering academic performance, personality development and extra curricular activities.

There, now it resembles MY college reality.

According to what standard?

[HangingChad (677530)]

Mr Prakash Gopalan, the Dean of Student Affairs, says, 'one only had to look at the hard drive of any of the students' computers to see that bad content dominated over good.'

Bad by what definition? And who sets that standard? The Dean of Student Affairs deciding what's good and bad on the internet is a little like my pharmacist letting their conscience decide which meds are good and bad.

Both of those are bad ideas. Far more dangerous than any content on a college kid's hard drive.

Re:

[phasm42 (588479)]

If you're going to pull an all night session it should be studying not gaming or web surfing.

Hmm, and no one studies using resources on the internet?

Re:

[chill (34294)]

Except the big difference is the students at college are PAYING to be there and are not your children. They are supposed to be beyond nursemaid age, so stop treating them like babies.

If you want them to study more and improve their education, make the classes tougher and require more original work. Hell, raise the fees for Internet access, but cutting off late-night links is STUPID.

All it means is a few bright students are going to set up wireless links to off-campus DSL and charge a small fee for after-h

Re:

[melikamp (631205)]

Actually, after reading the article, I suspect that they are funded by the government (the boss there talks about wasting tax payers' money). If so, it would match up pretty well with their populist approach to education, which includes shaping the students into "well-rounded human beings".

Re:Seems reasonable to me.

[OwenMarshall (779270)]

But realize that we are talking about college students -- adults, not children. Providing them with unlimited internet access is an excellent idea -- it ensures that the lazy slackers wash out of college.

For my sophomore year, I had a freshman roommate who used the campus internet to play WoW all night long. Literally -- I went to bed at 2 after finishing engineering homework, was up by 8, and he hadn't moved. Because of that he slept in all day, only to wake up later and play more WoW. Went to classes once a week at best. Guess who dropped out with a GPA below 2.0? Guess who wasn't ready for the real world, and wouldn't be able to hold a job for ten minutes with that approach to life?

An American high-school education is highly devalued from where it was years ago. Social promotions and strict rulesets are eliminating the gap that previously existed between the achieving students and the ones who would fail out. If you narrow that same gap in college, you end up doing the same thing -- churning out students who cannot manage time or priorities, students who stand no chance of surviving in the buisiness world.

Re: Time Management

[TaoPhoenix (980487)]

Bravo!

You pegged it perfectly. It's the GRADES that matter. If someone is bright and gets their work done, ... then they graduate with honors. Having completed their fixed task, they get to socialize, which INCLUDES Net access. If you have to work out a high-bandwidth fee, figure it out.

As someone else pointed out, students were lazing about in drunken stupors in the days before net access. I don't care about how someone washes out. Self control is PART of the unstated education of college, where you don't need Bathroom Passes.

As a much larger issue, in the 21st century, Content Lockdown mentalities are OBSOLETE. Yes, this terrifies many Powers-That-Be. Deal. The Information Age is here forever, and it's only going to get MORE intense.

Universities are ridiculously expensive anyway. They can afford the loss-leader (excepting lawsuits) of a Net connection.

This is just another instance of PowerLust disguised as Think of the Children.

No, not reasonable...

[zappepcs (820751)]

All the jokes aside, while it is reasonable for *you* to restrict the activities of *your* children in *your* home, it is NOT okay to limit the activities of college students. Sure, they are there to get an education but what is this teaching them? That censorship is ok or even good?

Morality, social behavior, and personal habits are not modified in good ways by censorship or other controlling means. It might work right now for your children, but these are not children, they are college students - young adul

Re:

[Rakishi (759894)]

The primary purpose of attending university is to get an education, not 24/7 Internet access.

Depends how you define "education" as classes are far from the only thing it encompasses. The best use of a university is to create connections and to network. What you know doesn't matter as much in life as who you know and how you can leverage your knowledge.

I can and do restrict online access of the children at home. My house, my rules.

So either your kids are idiots or young, well or you're an idiot/fool. Last I checked college students are adults and if you think 18 year old are kids and need to be babied I feel bad for your offspring (due to the horrible parenting they are recei

Re:Seems reasonable to me.

[Broken scope (973885)]

Except most of my studying comes from online resources. Oh fuck, I don't have access to the JAVA API, shit I can't get to suns site now. I've got some work to do and I need to go look some stuff up in the crypto. To bad thanks to asshats like you I can't do that now. Shit?!? Something is wrong with my IDE. Oh fuck, I can't go get another copy because I can't get to Borlands site.

You pay for the access, you can do what ever the hell you want with it. I pay a technology fee which covers my access. I'm paying, I get to do what I want with it as long as I don't harm the universities network environment. I've read the contract very thoroughly.

Re:Seems reasonable to me.

[Stevecrox (962208)]

Theres this thing called the interweb which is kinda integral to studying, my final year presentation is coming up and I want things perfect one of the best resources for my project is actually online (www.8052.com) so smart alecs like you kill my access at 10pm and suddenly when I hit a problem what do I do. Oh and BTW I'm currently working on this thing from 9am to 2am and have been for two weeks (project from hell, when something can go wrong it has) by your logic I'm a whiney uni boy instead of a nearly burnt out from working on this project student. My university provides free unlimited access but blocks ports associated with filesharing, this solution kills most online games and yet allows students to work from 9am to 2am.

Oh and the thing is college and university student are adults, if you treat them like children how are they going to cope in the real world? A university policy of asking students not to engage in illegal activites or do things which could be offensive to others (while detailing how said offended person should react) is more than enough, more than likely Bombay doesn't like its bandwidth bills and so it cutting back

Re:

[Cctoide (923843)]

What does one do during "late night browsing" that doesn't involve "touching the hard drive"? Eh?