My Struggles
We locked horns with the new Head of School today. He was a bit unconvincing in that 1h of facing a whole group of unhappy engineering students. I met up with him afterwards to discuss the official complaint afterwards. I'm not sure if he's a nice bloke or if he just has good people skills. I'd like to think that it's the combination of both, so I entrust him with my respect. But Jolly did say that I was too nice (which is ironic considering he knows me to be a pugnacious argumentalist).
In any case, the two main issues discussed were the elective and the big brother monitoring system.
In second semester of fourth (final) year of engineering, the school offers one elective with three options. One of those options relates to mechanical engineering, the other two relate to electrical and mechatronics engineering. The problem is, the mechanical subject is very useful, but is being run by a lecturer against whom I am in the process of leading an official complaint.
Furthermore, there is a subject that people have studied in the past on business ethics in the school of business. This relates closely to project management, so would be a very useful subject to study. We're being told we can't enrol in that. A lot of us are quite unhappy because none of the subjects offered interest us.
The second issue is that the computer tech decided to trial new software that gives a live stream of all the computers in the engineering labs. Essentially nothing is safe. One of the problems is that the university has a different ethics agreement to the school of engineering. The story about how I came up against the system is kind of amusing...
It was swatvac and I was looking at my blog, or checking my footy tipping or dream team or something. Up popped a chat window saying "These computers are meant to be for course work only". I kept going. Then up came another thing saying "You have been warned." At this, I tried to type into the chat thing, but it wouldn't let me. So, I thought to myself "whatever".
It was swatvac, so I wasn't regularly using the uni computers, so a week after this episode, I tried to login again, only to be told to go and see my system administrator. I needed to check my email, so I asked a friend if I he would mind if I used his account for this. It wasn't a problem. Being a gmail user, my status became active, so a friend, who had also been locked out and was thus working from home began chatting to me. He requested that I download some stuff for his upcoming exam that he needed. We got chatting a bit and he starts telling me about the new software that they have. So I make the comment that it's a bit Orwellian, 1984esque, and I say that the computer tech guy is a too gutless to let us write back to us.
Just as I enter that text, the chat box pops up saying "Do you really think so?"
So, somewhat stunned, I begin typing: "I can type?"
"Sure" comes the response.
I then get on my moral high-horse about signing stuff that I inherently disagree with.
Then the computer tech says "Well you'd better come and see me then."
"Just got a bit of stuff I need to do, be up there in a bit."
So 15mins later I venture up to his office and from the door I hear him talking to another guy: "Yeah, some guy in the lab downstairs... said I was gutless... but he doesn't have the guts to come up and speak to me..." It was at that point that I knocked on his door.
We had a chat for half an hour or so. He showed me the software. He then went on about how it was all about keeping in step with the uni computer policy. Also, the downloads were proving to be too expensive, so that was why we weren't allowed to use the computers for general browsing. At that point, I was quite happy with what he had said, and understood that he was just subject to the uni policy.
Afterwards, however, I checked the university policy, only to find that it explicitly stated that computers could be used for personal use. So the school policy was not at all a reflection of the university policy. My respect for his arguments took a nose-dive.
The upshot of all this is that the new Head of School has banned the IT dude from using the software until next year, because it is not catered for (adequately) in either of the ethics statements, and therefore haven't signed our rights away in this matter.
So, that makes for a 50% success rate.
In any case, the two main issues discussed were the elective and the big brother monitoring system.
In second semester of fourth (final) year of engineering, the school offers one elective with three options. One of those options relates to mechanical engineering, the other two relate to electrical and mechatronics engineering. The problem is, the mechanical subject is very useful, but is being run by a lecturer against whom I am in the process of leading an official complaint.
Furthermore, there is a subject that people have studied in the past on business ethics in the school of business. This relates closely to project management, so would be a very useful subject to study. We're being told we can't enrol in that. A lot of us are quite unhappy because none of the subjects offered interest us.
The second issue is that the computer tech decided to trial new software that gives a live stream of all the computers in the engineering labs. Essentially nothing is safe. One of the problems is that the university has a different ethics agreement to the school of engineering. The story about how I came up against the system is kind of amusing...
It was swatvac and I was looking at my blog, or checking my footy tipping or dream team or something. Up popped a chat window saying "These computers are meant to be for course work only". I kept going. Then up came another thing saying "You have been warned." At this, I tried to type into the chat thing, but it wouldn't let me. So, I thought to myself "whatever".
It was swatvac, so I wasn't regularly using the uni computers, so a week after this episode, I tried to login again, only to be told to go and see my system administrator. I needed to check my email, so I asked a friend if I he would mind if I used his account for this. It wasn't a problem. Being a gmail user, my status became active, so a friend, who had also been locked out and was thus working from home began chatting to me. He requested that I download some stuff for his upcoming exam that he needed. We got chatting a bit and he starts telling me about the new software that they have. So I make the comment that it's a bit Orwellian, 1984esque, and I say that the computer tech guy is a too gutless to let us write back to us.
Just as I enter that text, the chat box pops up saying "Do you really think so?"
So, somewhat stunned, I begin typing: "I can type?"
"Sure" comes the response.
I then get on my moral high-horse about signing stuff that I inherently disagree with.
Then the computer tech says "Well you'd better come and see me then."
"Just got a bit of stuff I need to do, be up there in a bit."
So 15mins later I venture up to his office and from the door I hear him talking to another guy: "Yeah, some guy in the lab downstairs... said I was gutless... but he doesn't have the guts to come up and speak to me..." It was at that point that I knocked on his door.
We had a chat for half an hour or so. He showed me the software. He then went on about how it was all about keeping in step with the uni computer policy. Also, the downloads were proving to be too expensive, so that was why we weren't allowed to use the computers for general browsing. At that point, I was quite happy with what he had said, and understood that he was just subject to the uni policy.
Afterwards, however, I checked the university policy, only to find that it explicitly stated that computers could be used for personal use. So the school policy was not at all a reflection of the university policy. My respect for his arguments took a nose-dive.
The upshot of all this is that the new Head of School has banned the IT dude from using the software until next year, because it is not catered for (adequately) in either of the ethics statements, and therefore haven't signed our rights away in this matter.
So, that makes for a 50% success rate.
posted by BSJ-rom at 5:28 pm
5 Comments:
I was almost shocked to hear those stories about Russel T. looking at everything. But it's very funny also. I would probably have run down to his office, got him in a headlock on the ground and called campus security. Well done for tackling that issue.
If they are worried about downloads, they should be looking at guys watching youtube when the computer room is packed out.
Also the homeless people in there late at night playing chinese games, but they don't bother me.
Taking my laptop in with wireless is looking better.
It's so ironic that you can still use the uni's wireless network to download whatever you want...
Relax, if the FBI can do it, then it must be OK!
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/07/fbi-spyware-rev.html
I feel so safe...
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