08:13:05
COMPUTER
SYSTEM USE
College-owned
or -operated computing resources are provided for use by faculty, students and
staff of
I. Computing resources and accounts are owned by
the College and are to be used only for college-related activities that support
the mission, goals and purposes of the College. All access to the College's computer systems
must be approved; approvals may require displaying of proper identification or
completion of forms when requested. Access
to departmental computer systems must be approved by the dean, the director,
the department head or an authorized representative; approvals vary depending
upon the unit. Only college-owned or
college-approved equipment may be attached to the local network. All laptops are to connect only through the
campus wireless network.
II. Disclaimer. The
College makes available computing facilities consisting of hardware, software,
accounts and communication activities. The
College accepts no responsibility for any loss of data or damage to data or
services arising directly or indirectly from the use of these facilities or for
any consequential loss or damage. The
College makes no warranty, express or implied, regarding the computing services
offered or their fitness for any particular purpose.
III. Regular faculty and
staff, temporary faculty and staff, and students who have been admitted to the
college are considered eligible for computer accounts. Nonpayment of fees or withdrawal from classes
will result in forfeiture of a student-user account.
IV. Computing resources
and accounts are to be used only for the purpose for which they were assigned
and are not to be used for commercial purposes or non-college-related
activities. The prohibition against
commercial or non-college-related purposes also applies to World Wide Web pages
written and published from any Pellissippi State user account and applies to
advertisements of products and services or links to advertisements and services
to commercial World Wide Web pages from Pellissippi State user Web pages (see Pellissippi State Policy No.
08:13:04, World Wide Web (WWW) Page
Development And Use). Continued use of an account
after the student enrollment or faculty/staff employment ends is not permitted.
V. All accounts, including student user
accounts, assigned to an individual, must not be used by others. Faculty, students and staff are individually
responsible for the proper use of their accounts, including proper password
protection and appropriate use of Internet resources. Allowing friends, family or coworkers to use
accounts, either locally or through the Internet, is a serious violation of
these guidelines. Courtesy accounts may
only be authorized when they are related to official college business and
activities. (Instructions for obtaining are explained in Pellissippi State Policy
08:13:02 Computer Account Policy.) Faculty, students and staff
are responsible for choosing an appropriate password that is difficult to
guess. If an individual suspects his/her
account password has been compromised, he/she should change the password
immediately.
An
account password for E-mail accounts and other server-based resources can be
overridden when necessary by authorized administrators including the employee's
supervisor. The vice president for
Student Success and Enrollment Management may authorize an override of a
student account. Passwords, keyboard
locking software, or other security measures that are based on individual PC's rather than on servers cannot be as easily overridden.
Therefore, they may be used only with
the permission of a supervisor and only if the supervisor is provided with the
password or other unlocking mechanism.
Students
cannot call the Helpdesk to have an account password reset. A student must show a photo ID to the Helpdesk
personnel before a password can be reset. Distance Learning
students taking online classes only may request a password change by contacting
one of their instructors. Faculty or
staff may call the helpdesk to change a password. The helpdesk may contact the faculty or staff
supervisor to verify the request.
VI. Users may use
programs and files only in their own accounts, unless the programs and files
have been explicitly (either by written approval or security systems) made
available to others by the custodian of the data. Seeking to gain unauthorized access to files
and programs in someone else's account is a serious violation of this policy.
The
College will make reasonable efforts to maintain the integrity and effective
operation of its computer systems including electronic mail, but users are
advised that those systems should in no way be regarded as a secure medium for
the communication of sensitive or confidential information. Because of the nature of technology, the
College can assure neither the privacy of an individual user's use of the
College's computer system resources nor the confidentiality of particular
messages that may be created, transmitted, received or stored thereby. In addition, communications of College
personnel that are sent by electronic mail constitute
"correspondence" and therefore, will be considered public record
subject to public inspection under Section 6 of the Public Records Act TCA 3-12-105.
E-mail
is stored as files and is therefore subject to the same rules and restrictions
as any other files. Additionally, E-mail is very easy to forward and any E-mail
sent can easily become a matter of general dissemination. Forwarding E-mail from an account at the
College to a private account with an Internet Services Provider may make the
private account subject to the same potential for discovery and subpoena during
legal actions as is the account at the College.
The
College will not monitor electronic mail as a routine matter, but it may do so
to the extent permitted by law as the College deems necessary for purposes of
maintaining the integrity and effective operation of the College's electronic
mail system.
The
College reserves the right to inspect and disclose the contents of electronic
mail:
A. in the course of an
investigation triggered by indications of misconduct or misuse;
B. as needed to protect health
and safety of the College community;
C. as needed to prevent
interference with the academic mission; or
D. as needed to locate
substantive information required for College business that is not more readily
available by some other means.
VII. While the College recognizes and supports the
constitutional right to freedom of speech, College computing resources, including
the Internet, cannot be used to intimidate or create an atmosphere of
harassment, for example, harassment based upon gender, race, religion, ethnic
origin, creed or sexual orientation. Fraudulent,
threatening, or obscene E-mail or graphical displays used to harass or
intimidate are prohibited. Chain
letters, mass mailings and repeated sending of E-mail after being requested to
stop are also examples of inappropriate uses of college electronic
communications resources. The use of the
informational college computing resources for the transmission or dissemination
of defamatory information is a violation of this policy.
VIII. Software use must
conform to copyright laws and licensing agreements. Software is protected by copyright law whether
or not a copyright notice is explicitly stated in the software or in its
documentation. It is illegal to make
duplicate copies of a single software product unless authorized to do so by the
author or publisher of the software product. Computer users have no rights to give or
receive duplicates of software without authorization or to install software
onto college computing equipment. Software
installation may only be performed by authorized college computing systems
staff.
IX. Plagiarism.
Academic penalties for plagiarism are severe. Computing systems staff
cooperate with instructors to detect and verify plagiarism. Guilty students may lose computing privileges,
fail their courses and/or be placed on academic probation. Students who complete a course and share assignments
and tests with those enrolled in a subsequent semester will also face
disciplinary actions. Violation of this
policy may subject the accused student to disciplinary action in addition to
the other potential action. In order to
discourage plagiarism, students should be sure to pick up and discard all
printed output.
X. Users may not attempt to circumvent security,
to use knowledge of loopholes in computer system security or unauthorized
knowledge of a password to damage any computing systems, to obtain extra
computing resources, to take resources from another user, to gain access to
computing systems or to use computing systems for which proper authorization
has not been given - either on campus or off campus. Any of these attempts are
a violation of these guidelines.
XI. No one should
deliberately attempt to degrade the performance of a computer system (including
network resources) or to deprive authorized users of resources or access to any
college computer system. When a process
is consuming excessive system resources or objectionably degrading system
response, it may be terminated or its priority may be altered without notice.
The
following is illustrative of unacceptable uses and is not intended to be an
inclusive or exhaustive listing. Users may
not harass, threaten or defame other users. Attempts to steal,
intercept or attempt to intercept passwords, files or other user/system
information; or, attempts to crash or violate the integrity of, or adversely
affect, the activities of a computer system violate this policy. Users shall abide by all copyright laws; thus,
unauthorized attempts to browse, access, solicit, copy, use modify, or delete
electronic documents or programs belonging to others, whether at the College or
elsewhere is a violation of this policy. Use of the computing resources for any purpose
restricted or prohibited by federal or state laws or regulations is prohibited.
If activities as described above occur, the account will be disabled.
XII.
Disciplinary actions will conform with other college
policies and may result in a disciplinary review conducted by the vice
president of Student Success and Enrollment Management in matters involving
alleged violations by students, or by the vice president of College Advancement
in matters involving employees of the College.
An
individual's computer use privileges may be suspended immediately upon the
discovery of a possible violation of this policy, other campus policies or
illegal activities. The director of
Network and Technical Services, the vice president for Student Success and
Enrollment Management or the vice president of College Advancement will judge
an offense as either major or minor. A
first minor offense will normally be dealt with by the director of Network and
Technical Services and/or an appropriate supervisor. Major or additional minor offenses will be
forwarded to the vice president for Student Success and Enrollment Management
or the vice president of College Advancement. The account may be removed or deactivated or
privileges removed from one or all college computing systems permanently or
until the matter is completely resolved.
XIII. Faculty, students,
or staff that suspect violation of system or application security must contact
the Helpdesk immediately so that appropriate actions can be taken. Faculty, students, or staff not following the
Computer System Use policy must be reported immediately to the director of
Network and Technical Services for appropriate action.
Approved: President Allen G. Edwards, June 16, 1998
Approved:
President Allen G. Edwards, August 23, 1999
Approved:
President Allen G. Edwards, August 19, 2002
Approved:
President Allen G. Edwards, October 21, 2002
Approved: President Allen G. Edwards, June 7, 2004
Reviewed/Recommended: President’s Staff,
August 21, 2006
Approved: President Allen G. Edwards, August 21,
2006
Reviewed/Recommended: President’s Staff, April
14, 2008
Approved: President Allen G. Edwards, April 14, 2008