take a look at crunchbang linux. most linux distributions don't include flash player, a java VM, or mp3 play capabilities (by default). crunchbang not only include these, but is much faster than Xubuntu.

So computer programming students who want to use Bittorrent to share code (among many others) should be left out of the loop? Besides, this still doesn't address the issues the University posed regarding hampering academic performance, personality development and extra curricular activities. As for good vs bad content on student's hard drives, blocking "commonly abused ports" will not stop that. It's one of the top engineering schools - students will find a workaround (if not write some new p2p file-sharing software). Further, any University that limits it's students' access to the internet any more than it limits it's staff/faculty I-net access is asking for trouble. I'd be one of the students looking to study somewhere else.