Hanover College Network Usage Policy
I. Foreword Access to modern information technology is essential to the pursuit and achievement of excellence in instruction, research, and service outreach for Hanover College. The privilege of using computing systems and software, as well as internal and external data networks, is important to all members of the College community. The preservation of that privilege for the full community requires that each individual member comply with institutional and external standards for appropriate use. To assist and ensure such compliance, the Computers Committee and Information Technology department of Hanover College, with the approval of the Rules Formulation Committee and the Faculty, establish in the following document the acceptable use of computing systems, software and the College data network. II. Definitions and Responsibilities "Information Technology" authorizes and establishes network connections for campus computers. This department is responsible for system design and development for all academic and administrative information servers and software. "Information Technology" is primarily responsible for the analysis, design, and development of the campus local area network as well as connections to the Internet. This department assigns accounts and access privileges to users for the campus data network and the network on-line systems. This department purchases, maintains and manages all college-owned computers and peripherals. A "System Manager" is a person who is authorized by Hanover College to develop, grant and create user privileges, maintain the system file store and ensure the effective operation of a system connected to the Hanover College data network. The "College community" consists of: Students are individuals currently enrolled in classes at Hanover College. Students can either be residents or commuters. "Faculty" are individuals with faculty status who are currently full- or part-time employees of Hanover College. Faculty are also those people with faculty emeritus status. "Staff" are individuals currently employed as administrative or maintenance personnel by Hanover College. A "User" is any individual who uses, logs in, attempts to use, or attempts to log into a system, whether by direct connection (modem or network) or across one or more networks, or who attempts to connect to or traverse a network, whether via hardware, software, or both. The term "User" thus includes all faculty, students and staff members. "User" also includes organizations that have received formal permission to connect to the campus system by Hanover College and/or the Indiana Higher Education Telecommunications System (IHETS). A "System Operator" is an individual authorized by Hanover College to control some subset of computing operations necessary for the effective management of some aspect of functionality of the system. (Example: system print queue management, departmental server). A "Faculty Resource person" is an individual authorized by Information Technology to serve as an additional resource person for network/online systems development. An "Internet access server" is a computer that is connected to the network and is open to Internet users for anonymous FTP (file transfer protocol), gopher, network news, telnet or http service access (depending on services made available by Information Technology). A "Restricted access server" is a computer that is connected to the network and is not open to all Internet users. This server may be restricted to students, faculty or staff members of the College or may be restricted to a subset of these. III. Implications of Diversity in the Information Technology Environment 1. Access to computing resources and the data network is available to all members of the Hanover College community. 2. Computer hardware resources at Hanover College are the property of Hanover College and are generally purchased for the College community to use on campus for College purposes. 2.1 No College computer is to be removed from the College facility in which it was placed by College computing staff without the consent of the Chief Technology Officer. 3. Computer software resources at Hanover College are the property of Hanover College and are purchased with appropriate and required license and copyright provisions. Users are responsible for informing themselves of, and strictly complying with, the license and copyright provisions of the software they use and of Section III-6.1 of the Faculty Manual. 3.1 No software copy is to be made by any User without a prior, good faith determination that such copying is in fact permissible and legal. All Users must respect the legal protection provided by copyright and license to programs and data. 3.2 The licenses of certain advanced software tools require that intellectual products produced with such tools be provided to the licensor. It is the responsibility of the user to be informed of these circumstances. i Hanover College is not responsible for hardware and software not purchased by the College. 4. Network resources at Hanover College will serve diverse purposes and diverse constituencies. Faculty are given discretion in use of campus network resources for classroom use. The College community is given discretion in the use of campus network resources for scholarly, professional, and personal use. Some examples of acceptable professional uses for College computing resources for the College community are: Research Education State, local, or national governmental affairs Public service Some examples of acceptable personal uses of College computing resources for the College community are: Correspondence with other Internet sites via E-mail General Internet access (Gopher, FTP, WWW, USENET, etc.) Use of campus network printer resource Some examples of unacceptable uses of College network resources for the College community are: Uses that violate U.S. or state laws Electronic chain E-mail Obscene, suggestive or threatening E-mail to other Internet users Any actions that might disrupt network users, services or equipment. These actions include but are not limited to: distribution of unsolicited advertising propagation of computer worms or viruses using the network to make unauthorized entry to other computational, information, or communications devices or resources. 5. Hanover College computing and network resources are extended to the College community only. All external use must be approved by College computing staff (example: Internet access to campus servers from off campus sites). 6. All members of the College community are expected to use campus computing resources in a responsible manner for primarily College purposes. Users found to be misusing or exploiting campus computing resources will be subject to disciplinary action. These actions include, but are not limited to, system account or student lab privilege suspension. Non-compliance with acceptable use regulations may result in College disciplinary actions against the user. (See section "Enforcement and Adjudication") IV. Acceptable use of the Hanover College Data Network and "The Internet" 1. All Users must respect the privacy and usage privileges of others, both on the Hanover College campus and at all sites that can be reached by Hanover College's external network connections. 1.1 Users shall not intentionally seek information on, obtain copies of, or modify files, other data, or passwords belonging to the College or other Users, whether on the Hanover College campus or elsewhere, or develop or retain programs for that purpose, without the authorization of the file owner or their respective director of computing. Reasonable file copying and password changes are permitted among the routine tasks of System Managers and System Operators. 1.2 Users shall not represent themselves electronically as others, either on the Hanover College campus or elsewhere, unless explicitly authorized to do so by those other Users. To be valid, such authorization of one User by another User must not circumvent established, system-specific policies defining eligibility for resource access. 1.3 Users shall not intentionally develop or retain programs that would inhibit the use of the network or its services for other Users, either on the Hanover College campus or elsewhere. 1.4 Users shall not obstruct or disrupt the use of any computing system or network by another person or entity, either on the Hanover College campus or elsewhere , whose usage is protected by law, ordinance, regulation, policy, or administrative ruling. 2. All Users must respect the integrity of computing systems and networks, both on the Hanover College campus and at all sites that can be reached by Hanover College's external network connections. 2.1 Users shall not by any means attempt to infiltrate (e.g., gain access without proper authorization) a computing system or network, either on the Hanover College campus or elsewhere. 2.2 Users shall not attempt to damage, or alter without proper authorization from computing staff, either the hardware or the software components of a computing system or network, either on the Hanover College campus or elsewhere. 3. All Users of Hanover College's external connections shall comply with the acceptable use policies established by the College's external networks' governing bodies. Copies of these use policy documents can be examined in the office of the Chief Technology Officer. 4. College Users are not permitted to allow non-authorized users to use College network or computing resources. 5. College Users should not share account passwords with other College or Non-College Users. All College Users are responsible for their own passwords and their use or misuse. 6. Computing and networking resources are sometimes in scarce supply. Excess demand may variously involve disk space, CPU time, workstation access, printer access, software access and network bandwidth. 6.1 If there are no lab computers available, priorities stand as: (1) scheduled class time; (2) computer users with classwork needs directly related to assignments (word processing, electronic mail, gopher, etc.); (3) computer users with non-classwork needs/uses (word processing, E-mail, gopher, etc.). Students will be given one hour of guaranteed computer time to fulfill classwork assignments. After this one hour of computer time, in the occasion of computer shortage, a student can be asked to move to the back of the waiting list and make the computer available to the person who has waited the longest amount of time for a computer. Students using a computer for non-academic purposes can be asked to give up their computer immediately without the one-hour guaranteed computer time. 6.2 Information Technology and the Computers Committee of Hanover College reserve the right to revise reasonable usage priorities and operational policies (such as hours of operation, usage time limits, populations to be served, etc.). 6.3 Users should be provided systematic means for feedback concerning the priorities and their implementation by there respective campus computing departments. 6.4 Faculty or staff members teaching a course or training session in a computer lab have the discretion to exclude students who are not enrolled in the course from using the lab during the class period. V. Enforcement and Adjudication 1. The principal responsibility for investigation of suspected non-compliance with the provisions of this document rests with Information Technology staff. 1.1 The investigation of alleged or suspected non-compliance with the provision of this document is to be conducted with due regard for the rights of all Users, such as the rights to privacy and intellectual property. 1.2 Information Technology may suspend service to Users without notice when reasonably necessary to the operation or integrity of the system or the networks connected to it. 1.3 Cessation of service, whether by network disconnection or disablement of login capability, shall be utilized in preference to file inspection when remedying or investigating instances of alleged disruption. 1.4 The content of User files is not to be surreptitiously or otherwise examined, nor is the User-generated message content of User network transactions to be monitored, without the prior written permission of either the User involved or the Chief Technology Officer. However, System Managers and others charged by them with forwarding misdirected or undeliverable electronic mail and/or delivering print-outs may examine such mail or hard-copy to the extent reasonably necessary for such purpose. 2. When an instance of non-compliance is suspected or discovered in a computing system or network established by a department, College or other administrative unit, the Chief Technology Officer shall be informed. 2.1 Internal disciplinary action may be appropriate in some cases of non-compliance with this document. Relevant General Student Regulations (See Hanover College Student Handbook section entitled "Cooperative Behavior"). 2.2 Criminal or civil action against Faculty, Staff, or Students may be appropriate in some instances. Such cases should be discussed with the Vice President for Academic Affairs and the President of the College. 3. In all cases the principal responsibility of investigating and reporting of non-compliance rests with Information Technology. Penalties beyond account and/or lab use suspension will be issued through the appropriate college channels. 3.1 Instances of student non-compliance will be reported to the Student Judicial Board and penalties imposed accordingly by that judicial body. 3.2 Instances of faculty non-compliance will be reported to the Vice-President for Academic Affairs and penalties imposed accordingly by that office. 3.3 Instances of administrative staff non-compliance will be reported to the Vice-President for Business Affairs and penalties imposed accordingly by that office. 4. Due to the ongoing developments in computer technology, Information Technology reserves the right to form interim policies pending official approval from the Computers Committee and, if necessary, the Faculty. |