Hilda Ann Venegas
Staff Writer

Accessing the Internet on a University of La Verne computer is no longer possible for those who do not have a ULV e-mail account.

Now, accessing the Internet requires a ULV username and password.

“This has nothing to do with the security of university systems,” said Clive Houston-Brown, chief information officer. “It is for the purposes of making things easier for law enforcement agencies.”

The reason for the change is due to the Communications Assistance Law Enforcement Act.

Under this new law, ULV could either follow through with it or become exempt. Feb. 14 was the deadline by which ULV had to make the aforementioned decision.

ULV is exempt because the new user log-in system is applied.

If ULV had not become exempt, then the University computers, such as those in the library or Learning Enhancement Center, would have needed special equipment so that the information sent online is available for law enforcement to access if needed.

Once a person has logged on to the computer, they can use the Internet for as long as they want.

There are no restrictions as to what Web sites a person can go to or a time limit as to how long they can be on the computer.

Thirty minutes of inactivity on the computer will result in the user being logged out of the system under these new regulations.

The Infrastructure Support Department and the Client Services Department of the Office of Information Technology made the changes.

“It’s probably taken us three-months of planning, set-up and effort.
It probably took overall a few hundred hours of staff time to accomplish,” Houston-Brown said.

Some students and staff have already had experiences under these new regulations.

“I think it’s a waste of time because you have to log-in and log-out and sometimes people forget to log-out,” said Christina Ortiz, a senior business major. “When I first used it somebody had forgotten to log-out so I was doing my work on their screen.”

“I think it’s a positive thing because it limits who can use our computers,” said Elizabeth Keagy, a sophomore economics major.

As far as how these new regulations will affect her use of ULV’s computers Keagy says, “I will still continue to use the computers and the Internet the same way I did before.”

Ashley Cervantes, a senior psychology major, also experienced the new system. “I think it’s good that they’re monitoring for any illegal activity,” said Cervantes.

In terms of how it will affect her use of ULV’s computers, Cervantes said, “It won’t affect me at all because all of my searching is for academic purposes.”

“I don’t think it’s much of a problem. As long as you’re a ULV student just punch in your number and that’s all,” said Karla Espinoza, a sophomore liberal studies major. “It wasn’t much of a problem for me. It just takes a few extra seconds,” Espinoza said of her first experience using the new system.

“My opinion is that it’s unfortunate that we have to lose some of our freedom and some of our privacy. It also goes against my philosophy of providing easy access to information to everyone,” said Darryl Swarm, reference librarian. Swarm logged onto the Internet using a library computer. “When you log in it does not tell you how to log-out. You have to notice the log-out icon on the desktop which is not visible from when the browser window is open,” said Swarm.

Hilda Ann Venegas can be reached at hvenegas@ulv.edu.