Many students in the residence halls have caught the current virus that is caused by a vulnerability in the Windows operating system (This does not affect Macintosh computers or computers running Windows-98). When a machine gets the current round of virus, it seriously degrades the performance of the entire network. Thus, when an infected computer is detected it is immediately disconnected from the College’s network. It cannot be reconnected to the network until the computer is disinfected and patched.

Information Technology Services has sent notices to students, distributed CD’s with correction software, left voicemail for students, etc. to apprise them of the situation.

We have had a difficult time getting student’s attention for a variety of reasons: many students have not set up their College voicemail account, many are not reading their College email, and many appear to be ignoring warnings.

Unfortunately there is another round of viruses coming that promises to be more destructive. The only way to prevent these occurrences from continuously trying to infect other computers is to

1. Apply all Microsoft CRITICAL updates
2. Keep your virus protection up-to-date

In the information we have sent to students, we have included information on how to do these things. We also took the step of placing plastic bags on all freshman residence hall rooms ­ and making CDs available to all other students.

The situation is critical ­ and we would ask that if a student says they have had trouble connecting to Union’s residence hall network, ask them if they have taken the above steps. Usually, if they are disconnected it is because their computer is infected.