Click Here To Review The Draft Policy
Eastern Washington University encourages open discussion and invites feedback from all university constituents and interested parties on proposed changes to University-level policies and Washington Administrative Codes. Persons who have comments on the proposed changes to this policy are encouraged to post their comments below or email their comments to the University Policy Administrator.
David Syphers says
I’m confused by section 3.3 – and if I’m reading it right, very concerned by it. You’re saying all software installed on all university computers must be reviewed by IT, even if it’s free? So every person who installs Firefox, Chrome, Acrobat Reader, etc. has to personally get that installation reviewed by IT? Every browser plug in? Every software upgrade?
What about scientific software distributed as source code? This is often highly specialized, obtained directly from a researcher who wrote it, and free – what is IT going to review? They won’t have any background for understanding the software, there’s no cost to it, and there’s no way IT has the manpower to even lint the code, let alone review it in detail (if they’re even familiar with the language).
This seems really bad for users, and really, really bad for IT.
David Syphers says
Also, section 3.3, read strictly, requires IT to approve all code written by faculty or students prior to us running it on university computers. That’s a full-time job to review just one intro CS class, let alone everyone.
Scharosch, Annika says
The proposed policy is to have IT review all agreements pertaining to the procurement of software, not the software code itself.
Alan McCoy says
Regarding Section 2.1 Procurement, does this mean that in order for someone to go to Jarms (or Grainger, Amazon etc) to buy a drill bit or some other such item, that person would need “to successfully complete State Procurement and Ethics training?”
Scharosch, Annika says
The Department of Enterprise Services requires anyone who uses a university purchase card or makes small purchases on behalf of the university to take mandatory training on procurement and ethics. EWU is following DES’ directive. https://des.wa.gov/services/contracting-purchasing/policies-training/contracts-procurement-training-development/training-program-small-purchasers
Chad johnson says
You should not have names in the official policy, only positions.
People come and go, position responsibilities do not change as often; supposedly.