Steen said he wants to be careful in providinga warning to students that their activities maynot be as private as they think.

"I'm a little cautious about setting upwarnings," Steen said. "I don't want students tothink everything they do is public. Their e-mailmessages are secure."

Steen said, however, that students shouldunderstand the differences between electronic mailand regular mail.

"[Maybe] we should say a little louder that weare a public system and people can discover somethings about what you're doing," the directorsaid.

Nevertheless, he argued that the majority ofstudents continue to trust HASCS with theircommunications.

"People rely on our mail system, and trust usand our system administrators," Steen said.

A Student Administrator

Those systems administrators include, inaddition to several full-time employees, astudent: Jefferson C. Tarr '96.

Along with the rest of the administrators, Tarrholds the "root" password for the HASCS machines.

The password makes its holder a "super user,"capable of controlling the HASCS computers and allUnix accounts.

Super users maintain the computers, but theirpower gives them the ability to see intoeveryone's files and e-mail activities.

Steen said he is still considering the issue ofstudent system administrators, but said that Tarr"is a HASCS employee who has proven himself."

"I've been here nine months," he said. "[Therole of student administrators] is one of manythings that have been here, and that I've beenconcerned about."

"It is important to keep the number of peoplewith the root password to a minimum," Steen said."It is my goal to reduce this small number ofpeople to an even smaller number."

Students are divided on whether other studentsshould be super users. David A. Holland '95-'96, astudent not currently enrolled in classes, alsoholds the root password.