On October 26, 2001, President Bush signed the USA Patriot Act (“Act”), which expands law enforcement powers in ways that are likely to affect university network operators. Universities providing Internet access, data storage and retrieval, web hosting, virtual private networks and intranets face new obligations under the Act. All types of Internet service providers (“ISPs”), including universities, may be served with greater numbers of court orders, subpoenas and warrants in coming months. To meet the challenges of the new law, universities should: (1) review privacy, confidentiality and security policies to ensure that they reflect the new legal obligations; (2) establish procedures to respond to warrants, subpoenas or court orders while remaining within the scope of liability protections afforded by the Act; and (3) review their systems to identify ways in which surveillance can be accommodated without degrading network performance.