BYU made the popular video sharing site YouTube available across campus on Friday after a thorough review of the Web site’s impact on students and education.

BYU had been reviewing the idea of allowing YouTube access on campus for some time but only recently came to a decision.

“Given the educational information and materials available on the video sharing service, the university determined to make the service available on campus,” said BYU spokeswoman Carri Jenkins.

Many students were pleased to see the ban lifted. One student, Jessica Halsey, said she uses YouTube often.

“I use it to catch up on TV shows and things like that, but I also use it for news,” Halsey said. “I’ve used it a couple times to watch Church videos.”

She also said it would be useful for illustrating concepts in her major, and that some classes have already been using it, as faculty could override the YouTube block with a password.

“They do use it a lot in classes for examples — not for assignments, but for presentations and things like that,” she said.

Dale Cressman, coordinator of the broadcast program in the Department of Communications, is excited about the opportunities this presents for broadcast students in particular.

“Not only will I be able to use material in the classroom more easily, but students will be able to submit their work,” Cressman said. “We want students to begin video portfolios from the time they apply to the major right through to the time they graduate.”

YouTube gives students an opportunity to broadcast these portfolios and make it easier to share them with other students and potential employers.

Allowing YouTube on campus will potentially help other departments on campus as well.

“There is a movement to put lecture material on YouTube so that classroom time can be used for discussion,” Cressman said. “It really opens a lot of doors for us.”

In conjunction with lifting the YouTube ban, BYU’s information technology department launched a new Web site for online safety –– besafe.byu.edu. The site is mainly geared toward students but its information can apply to all Internet users.