0
stentorian
north Carolina school of science and mathematics
voLXX
1219 broad street, durham nc 27705
September 2000
Http ://www.contro versy.com
Will (jarneau
During your tireless
searches on Yahoo! for informa
tion on Cotton Mather or pic
tures of Britney Spears you
probably have come across the
newest addition to the NCSSM
network: SurfWatch. This piece
of software was implemented
this year to prevent the viewing
of inappropriate content on the
NCSSM network. That includes
anything from a Puritan diatribe
against sexual gratification to
snapshots of Ms. Spears in a
vinyl space suit.
SurfWatch was in
stalled this summer at the re
quest of Dr. Boarman whose
technical experience at Eleanor
Roosevelt High School in Mary
land taught him the importance
of regulating what students can
view over the net. According
to Richard Alston, head pro
grammer in ITS, the technology
has been available for a few
years but ITS had not decided
to implement it because the
problem of inappropriate
internet usage had not been
deemed a problem.
“It’s a big change,”
Alston says. “The concept is
not just to block smut or pro
fanity but also sites that are not
academic.” Some of the non-
academic sites that ITS has
blocked include chat sites, gam-
with the guidelines for computer
usage at NCSSM. There were
absolutely no technical barriers
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This site has been biocked by the NCSSM content fiiters
NCSSM Internet Use Policy
1) Acceptable Use
Must be in support of education and research consistent with NCSSM policy, and employees job description
Must be consistent with the njles appropriate to any network being used/accessed.
Lhauthorized use of copynghted material is prohibited.
Publishing, downloading or transmitting threatening or obscene material is prohibited.
Distribution of material protected by trade secret is prohibited.
Use for commercial activities is not acceptable.
ProiJja advertisement or political lobbying is prohibited.
2) Privileges
•form inappropriate ser^Ses^SSf^foeJ^^ar with this screen
bling sites, internet gaming
sites, and other general enter
tainment sites. These sites were
not blocked because their con
tent is objectionable but be
cause they are not consistent
to using the internet at NCSSM
last year.
Internet music sites such
as Napster are also unavailable
for students; however the ratio
nale for blocking those sites is
that student downloads slow
down the network.
Dr. Alston also notes that
the sites that are
blocked for stu
dents are exactly
the same sites that
are blocked for
staff ITS main
tains a list of sites
that are inacces
sible for all users.
But this list is very
fluid and ITS
urges students
and staff to recom
mend sites that be
un-blocked. Since
the beginning of
this year the fac
ulty has gotten in
the habit of re
questing that a site
be removed from
the list and ITS
has been readily
willing to help
them out as it is
easy. to modify
SurfWatch.
SurfWatch is a commer
cial product that operates a
server with lists of sites under
different categories. The admin
istrators of the Science and
Math network pay a fee to have
SurfWatch maintain a database
of those sites which is con
stantly updated to stay current.
Then when a person types in a
url such as http://
www.ilovebritneyspears.com
the browser sends that entry to
the main server which deems if
that is an appropriate or inap
propriate site. ITS can
micromanage which sites are
okay so that if a student is do
ing a research paper about a
controversial topic that has
been banned on the network he
or she can see that material.
Unfortunately, the stu
dent body has not been as aware
of the willingness of ITS to
change the list. The idea be
hind a general grouping of sites
that are blocked is that members
of the community will amend the
list to make it more appropriate.
The software is designed to not
only regulate certain internet
addresses or url’s but also
check content. So if you try to
open an academic site for your
Cotton Mather paper and the
word “sexual gratification” ap
pears in the text then it is likely
that SurfWatch will block the
site. It is these types of sites
that ITS hopes students will ask
to have re-instated.
The Ladies’ Man with the Snakeskin Boots
Kitty Fromson
By now, many of you
have probably seen or met Mr.
JimNaz2al. He’s medium height,
with a small amount of reddish
brown hair and an alert face, and
he actually eats in the PFM.
He’s a new history teacher here
at NCSSM and the snappiest
dresser on the faculty.
Mr. Nazzal spent the
first fifteen years of his life in
Wisconsin, and is still an ardent
Green Bay Packers fan. He re
ceived both his bachelors and
masters degrees from the Uni
versity of Washington. To pre
vent “intellectual inbreeding”,
he’s currently working on his
doctorate from Washington
State University. His disserta
tion, “Traveling with the La
dies”, combines his three areas
of interest: United States his
tory, Middle Eastern history,
and women’s history. It inves
tigates the published travel ac
counts of American women who
visited Palestine in the nine
teenth century and compares
what these women expected of
the Holy Land to what they ac
tually saw.
So what made Mr.
Nazzal, who has never lived in
the South, move across the
country
to teach
a t
NCSSM?
Surpris
ingly, he
applied
for teach
ing posi
tions at
thirty
colleges
and uni
versities
across
the na
tion but
ours was
the only
high school. After having in
terviews at about five schools,
Mr. Nazzal decided on ours for
many reasons. He was im
pressed by the fact that every
one at Science and Math has
earned his or her right to be here.
He was tired of college students
who came late to class and left
early, and those who didn’t re
ally want to be learning. He
says that he has been consis
tently pleased with us because
we show up for class and are
mostly attentive and inquisitive.
This is the first time that
he has taught high school. “It
is like day versus night,” he
said.
Also, Mr. Nazzal com
mented that he was surprised at
the number of teachers here that
have taught at research univer
sities for ten or fifteen years and
still prefer
NCSSM
students.
Mr.
Nazzal
loves his
tory and
chose to
teach it for
many rea
sons. First
of all, his
most memo
rable teach
ers taught
history.
They were
the most
engaging
and the best professors. Also,
he likes the fact that history is a
constantly changing field with
out definitive answers.
This suits him because, as
he said, “I am the type of per
son whose little world is not
black and white. In history,
there are so many options and
so many possibilities, and no
truth with a capital T.”
He pointed out that cer
tain laws arid formulas in the
Newtonian world are simply not
subject to change, whereas we
are always unearthing new
pieces of history and creating
new theories.
Regarding his feelings on
science and math, he said, “I
don’t care how many frogs you
cut open; they all have the same
guts.”
Mr. Nazzal may not enjoy
the more traditional sciences,
but he is happy to be teaching
here, and we should be very
glad to have him as a faculty
member. So if you haven’t seen
him or talked to him yet, intro
duce yourself. He can tell you
about Middle Eastern history,
he can help you with your bas
ketball, volleyball, or softball
game, and he can make a lecture
about the Puritans interesting.
Just don’t expect help on your
biology homework.