According to a student newspaper, Lindenwood University has blocked access to Facebook and MySpace in the student center’s main computer lab during certain hours. Apparently, the new policy this semester is a result of students and professors complaining that so many students were hogging the computers to go to the popular social networking sites that there were not enough computers available to do homework.

(But students still have full access to those sites in their dorms or in other computer labs on campus.)

One university administrator was quoted as saying that 65 out of the lab’s 100 computers would be taken up with Facebook and MySpace. Apparently, the related noise level in the lab was also a problem.

The story says that not everyone has been happy with the new policy — including many international students who say they use these sites to stay in touch with family and friends back home.

But officials in the story say the ban has been successful and well-received by many students. And, at least, the computer lab is quieter these days, they say.

MySpace and Facebook are being blocked from the Spellman Center computer lab during daytime hours. But students can access those sites in that lab after 8 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and after 6 p.m. on Fridays.