Date and Time changes on Folders when they haven't been accessed

I have a user that accesses her user folder on a Novell OES SUSE Linux server from her Mac Pro running 10.6.8. When she looks at her folder dates they have changed as if some one has just accessed or changed her folders or files. Example: Today I opened her user folder and then drilled down and opened another folder within and then opened a Word doc within that deeper folder. The date on her user folder was 1/25/2005 1:28 PM before I touched it. After just opening that Word doc (and not changing it at all) and then closing it and then closing everything back to the level of her user folder the date had changed to Today, 12:01 PM in the Date Modified column. She has opened her user folder over the past few days to find it or other folders within having modified dates that indicate someone has touched those folders--but she knows she hasn't touched them for as much as a couple years in some cases. Her user folder, of course, doesn't allow any other user access. Sometimes a file will have a changed date as well but she hasn't touched the folder it's in for months. I'm having a hard time figuring out the why of these seemingly random date changes on these files and folders. I also checked for any malware and the machine is clean. Anyone have an idea?

Thanks

[cpragman]

Could it be that by opening the folder (in finder I assume), the .DS_Info file in each folder is being created or modified? This file is how finder remembers parameters specific to how that folder is displayed (location on screen, window size, etc.).