The Collegian

Issue date: 2/12/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Andrew Dodson Pornographic Web sites are not blocked on campus computers.

An accidental encounter with pornography on a classroom projector last semester went unnoticed by the professor, but the story was virally passed through the student body.

It was Nov. 19 in Associate Professor of History Burt Folsom's economic history class. With Folsom's blessing, junior Jim Nesbitt tried to look up a YouTube video about a one-armed baseball player using the projection screen and portable classroom keyboard. As he typed in the site address, Nesbitt accidentally misspelled "YouTube," causing real-time, graphic Internet pornography to appear in front of the entire class.

"Of course, the computer was so sluggish that the window wouldn't close promptly, allowing everyone ample time to notice that something was amiss on screen," Nesbitt said.

The class began to snicker, and in a few seconds, Nesbitt corrected his mistake. Senior Scott Rozell surmised that the professor never noticed. "I don't know if Folsom knows to this day," he said. The rumors spread about the incident were colorful.

"I more enjoyed hearing the rumors that it was my homepage, and that I screamed, 'Oh, s---' and tried to unplug it, as those stories are much more interesting than the actual occurrence," Nesbitt said.

Last year, in an article focusing on Dean Aaron Petersen's fight against pornography on campus, The Collegian reported that Information Technology Services does not monitor individuals' Internet usage. That includes classrooms, meaning that those big-screen projectors were fair game for Internet indecency. Patrick Chartrand, the network systems manager for ITS, said that hasn't changed. Although ITS has the capability of blocking or monitoring individual internet access, it doesn't, he said.

"We don't log it - I can't go see that Joe Pervie from Simpson was on Playboy.com," he said. "If law enforcement's involved, I can turn it on and see what any person is looking at now, but I can't see their history. That's across the board: classrooms, dorms, everything."

In a study conducted by Winona State University last year, 81 percent of students admitted to checking their e-mail and 68 percent had instant messenger programs signed on during class. Twenty-five percent of students used their laptops to play games. Statistics for pornography are not available, but some students admit to watching it in class.


Professor Nikolai Wenzel said the professors aren't responsible for what students Google in class. "I don't care what they're looking at as long as they don't disrupt the class," he said. "My educational contract is with each individual student. They should care enough to be prepared and pay attention, but it's their choice."

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