The University of New Mexico both confused and disappointed many of its 26,000 students last week with the decision to ban access to Facebook.com on its campus network. UNM officials said the ban may be revoked if some of their concerns are addressed, specifically questions about the website's level of security.
"People talk about it and stuff — I mean it's pretty much banned," UNM sophomore Ashley Hooper said. "We can't look at it on campus, like in the libraries or anything."
Facebook is an online directory designed to connect people through "social networks" which has grown enormously in popularity since its February 2004 inception.
"The intent has not been to permanently block the Facebook.com," UNM Dean of Students G. Randy Boeglin said. "I'm hoping that it's up [again] soon."
Facebook spokesperson Chris Hughes said his company wrote to university officials to discuss their concerns and once again make the website available on campus, although as of Sunday morning Hughes said the university had yet to respond.
"I'm not really clear on what their rationale is for prohibiting access, but in any case, it's a shame," Hughes said via e-mail. "Facebook is a site that millions of college students, including those at UNM, enjoy using."
Catherine Luther, spokesperson for the university's Computer and Information Resources and Technology (CIRT) department, said the initial blockage came as a result of spam affecting its network offices.
"It had nothing to do with the site until the Dean of Students office brought up the problem of privacy protection," Luther said.
The security issue, according to Luther, is the website's requirement of a student's school e-mail address when registering with the website. In turn she said some students additionally provide their UNM password.
"What happened here apparently were some students were entering their UNM passwords simply because they were asked for their UNM e-mail address, kind of a subconscious transfer," Luther said. "When you register there, that is not a secure registration."
Hughes defended the website's high level of security and refuted any need for a student to provide a password they use for their school e-mail account.
"To clarify, we don't require students to ever give us their university password. All we require is that they simply use their school e-mail address to log into the site," Hughes said. "We're an extremely secure site. I'm not sure what confidential information these universities think is spilling out."
Brian Rust, communication manager for the Division of Information Technology at the University of Wisconsin, said the question of whether to block access to Facebook has never surfaced at UW and added no concerns over security breaches exist.
"The nature of it is that you're putting a bunch of personal information out there," Rust said. "That's really the only concern that we've expressed."
A lack of communication both between UNM and Facebook and within the UNM itself seems to be rampant.
Luther emphasized CIRT was not at all involved in the decision-making process, and described the department as the "custodians of the network" who simply follow administrative policy rather than making their own.
"I don't know where the Dean of Students office currently is in their discussions with the website," she said.
Boeglin however said he has not talked with anybody from Facebook and when asked who in the university is responsible for communicating with the website, he suggested CIRT may have talked with them.
