Faculty senators yesterday approved a policy requiring computer users across campus to install and update anti-virus software on computers connected to UA networks.
It formalizes rules network administrators already enforce throughout the campus in an attempt to keep UA systems free of viruses, which can cause permanent damage to computers.
The policy, which includes a wide range of other guidelines for acceptable computer and network use, won support from all the senators present yesterday, though some expressed reservations about its enforceability.
"How is this going to be enforced and checked, especially because this kind of (program) requires a monthly or weekly update?" asked faculty senator Raffi Gruener.
The policy doesn't lay out specific enforcement provisions, but gives network managers the support of faculty in their attempts to keep UA cyberspace safe, said senator Kyle Baughman.
Anti-virus software can be downloaded free from the Center for Computing and Information Technology
Web site at sitelicense.arizona.edu/sophos.
CCIT supported the policy, which creates a uniform standard for acceptable computer use across campus.
It also bans people from using UA computers to create false identities, which are sometimes used to send threatening e-mails.
Such an incident couldn't occur if someone were using their official UA e-mail account, but could take place if somebody created an untraceable identity on another e-mail program, said Chestalene Pintozzi, who chairs the senate's Research Policy Committee.
In 2002, a former student who had accessed labs across campus was arrested on suspicion of sending threatening e-mails to President Peter Likins.
Senators yesterday also delayed a decision on whether to endorse a nationwide report outlining problems with intercollegiate athletics and possible solutions.
Senator Michael Cusanovich said it would be "capricious at best" to hastily endorse a document that could have serious political ramifications.
The framework, which was authored by the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics, a group of faculty leaders from Division I schools, criticizes football and men's basketball programs for admitting academically under-prepared athletes and calls for universities to pay stricter attention to an NCAA rule limiting athletes to 20 hours of sport-related activities per week.
The senate appeared poised to become the 20th body of its type in the nation to endorse the document, but several senators said they wouldn't back it until they had become more familiar with its findings.
Some also said the framework's recommendations were so idealized that it wasn't likely they'd ever come to fruition.
Provost George Davis said it would be "astonishing" if Division I athletes were ever able to limit their commitment to 20 hours per week. He also wondered why the framework didn't address the problem of gambling.
The document doesn't make recommendations specific to the UA, and senators yesterday were careful to point out that not all the problems it outlines may apply here.
Senators will likely decide whether to endorse the framework at an upcoming meeting.
At yesterday's meeting, faculty chairman Jory Hancock also said he had received lots of positive feedback about the possibility of opening a faculty club in the Student Union Memorial Center. Around 700 people responded to a survey gauging interest in the lounge, which would likely be located in the union's Redington Restaurant after it closes in the afternoon.
"I never got so many happy e-mails in my life," Hancock said.