The Observer, March 23, 2007
Volume XXXIX, Issue 21
World and Nation
Indian institute pulls plug on students' Web use
MUMBAI, India — A half hour before the clock strikes 12, India's top technology institute pulls the plug on Internet access in students' dorm rooms.
Attend classes, turn out for sports, and socialize–is the Indian Institute of Technology's message to students, many of whom were showing up for class bleary-eyed, if at all, after late nights spent Internet surfing and gaming.
"We found attendance for the first lecture at 8:30 a.m. was falling," said Aruna Thosar-Dixit, an IIT spokeswoman. "Students were not alert, they were sleepy, some were even sleeping."
The institute provides free Internet connections in dorm rooms as well as software labs. But since March 13, access has been blocked from 11:30 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. in individual dorms. The ban targets online gamers on the Mumbai campus and those who download movies.
"Professors found students spent more time on the Internet than socializing and attending sports and cultural functions," Thosar-Dixit said.
Predictably enough, students are upset. "It's true some students are addicted to gaming, so a partial ban was required, but this long a duration will hit all students," said second-year student S. Saurabh.
He said fewer students would complain if the ban began at 1 a.m. and lasted until early the next morning.
Former student Manesh Patel, now employed with a top business consulting firm, said pulling the plug on the Internet will only hurt students working on school projects.
Besides, he said, these are the brightest tech minds in the country, and they'll find ways to circumvent the rules. "I don't think it will change things much ... hard-core gamers will continue no matter what," said Patel.
The Mumbai institute will review its ban after a month, and says it's open to suggestions from student representatives.
Jeep runs over Va. man while he's in bed
ROANOKE, Va. (AP) — The underside of a car is a familiar sight to auto mechanic Dean Blevins. Seeing one on top of him at 2:30 in the morning, while he was in bed–that was new. A Jeep crashed through a wall of Blevins' apartment early Tuesday and pinned him in his bed. It took firefighters an hour to free him, but he suffered only minor bruises and scrapes.
As he saw the vehicle's engine above him and felt hot antifreeze splash onto his face, Blevins said, his initial thoughts were less about his injuries than about going after the driver.
"If I'd a had my gun," he told The Roanoke Times, "I'd 'a' probably shot him."
The driver, Wesley Dewayne Smith, 34, of Roanoke, was charged with driving under the influence.
Building owner Wesley Dearing said the Jeep's windshield got snagged between the first and second floors of the wood-frame building, probably saving Blevins from being crushed.
Blevins, 58, was treated at a hospital and released. His apartment was condemned until repairs could be made, but he said he had calmed down enough to laugh about the experience.
"I'm lucky to be alive," he said.
