The Committee on Information Technology revised the Policy on Responsible and Ethical Use of Computing Resources Nov. 4 in a move designed to clarify the university's ability to investigate network files and e-mail.

According to Bob Swofford, a professor of chemistry and chairman of CIT, the changes make explicit the guidelines inherent in the initial policy.

"We think it's a better document because of the revisions," Swofford said. "But it doesn't change the sense of the original document."

Most of the changes focused on clarifying language, but a few additions were made, specifically to the "System Monitoring," "Privacy" and "Prohibited Activities" sections.

In the "Privacy" section, the following paragraph was added: "If a member of the University community outside of Information Systems reports activities in apparent violation of the policies described here, IS will inform the appropriate authorities of the complaint. Upon approval, an investigation of a user's computing activities, e-mails and files may be initiated by Information Systems." Swofford said the policy changes will help protect Information Systems and explain the steps necessary to investigate possible networking violations. "This gives IS a defense mechanism that they could point to if someone came to them with a suspicion, IS would be pressured if they didn't have a document to fall back on," Swofford said.

Rhoda Channing, director of the Z. Smith Reynolds Library and a member of the CIT, said, "It puts checks in place to ensure confidentiality and expands a little bit on the copyright changes."

The CIT took another look at the computing policy following a Sept. 12 Old Gold and Black article in which University Police Chief Regina Lawson said student's electronic transactions could be monitored.