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Policies: Information Technology Acceptable Use Policy

As an academic community, the students, faculty, staff, and administration of the College honor intellectual property, respect the privacy of data, and recognize the rights of others. Each individual has a right of access to a fair share of available computing resources and to the privacy of files, and each has the responsibility, in turn, to use resources in an ethical manner.

It is the intent of the College to provide high-quality computing facilities to its users both to allow the College community to maintain its access to available local, national, and international information and to provide an environment which encourages both the acquisition of knowledge and the sharing of information. All technology owned by the College shall be used in a manner consistent with the College’s mission.

Each computer and all supporting technology infrastructure such as servers and networks within the campus community are tools belonging to the College. It is each computer user’s responsibility to be familiar with the particular conditions of use of, and to abide by, the computing provisions set forth within College policy, rules, and regulations.

In General:

Resources may be used for lawful and permitted purposes only. Use of resources for unlawful purposes or for uses not specifically permitted by the College, or assisting another in such use, is a serious violation of College policies, rules and regulations. Policy violations may result in a loss of access or additional appropriate disciplinary action ranging from the withholding of transcripts to expulsion from the College.

The College treats policy violations of computing facilities, equipment, software, information resources, and networks seriously. Issues concerning these guidelines or allegations of harassment or other irresponsible use of the information technology resources should be presented in writing in adherence to policies and procedures in the Student Handbook and Administrative Rules and Regulations.

College policies and procedures for use and access to information technology and systems extend outside the College when information resources are accessed via College equipment and/or facilities. Network or computing providers outside the College may additionally impose their own conditions of appropriate use, for which members of the College community are responsible.

The College must comply with the Patriot Act (Public Law 107-56) and any other current and future federal and state legislation regulating electronic mail and technology use. This may mean that data compiled through the use of the College network may be released under appropriate legal protocols.

E-Mail Acceptable Use

Appropriate and inappropriate use of Gloucester County College’s e-mail technologies are outlined within the provisions of this administrative rule/regulation and apply to the use of College-provided electronic mail system by all College users. College-provided electronic mail is intended for official and authorized purposes only. Electronic mail is the official form for communication to and among all College constituents and should be used in preference to paper, interoffice mail, and telephone calls.

Gloucester County College will provide the equipment and services to support the e-mail use necessary to promote its mission, goals, objectives, and strategic plan.

The College expects that all members of the College community will respect the rights of others and comply with all the laws that apply to communication and communication technology when using the e-mail system.

Account Activation/Termination

E-mail access at Gloucester County College is controlled through individual accounts and passwords. It is the responsibility of students to protect the confidentiality of their accounts and password information.

All students of GCC are provided an e-mail account.

ACCEPTABLE USE

Electronic-mail users must exercise good judgment in the use of this College resource. E-mail is to be used for College business purposes only, and shall not be used for personal reasons.

E-mail users also are responsible for mailbox management, including organization and cleaning. If a user subscribes to a mailing list, he or she must be aware of how to remove himself or herself from the list, and is responsible for doing so in the event of current e-mail address changes.

E-mail users are also expected to comply with normal standards of professional and personal courtesy and conduct.

Content Precaution

Since e-mail messages are records of the College, e-mail users must treat e-mail messages as if they were written on Gloucester County College letterhead. E-mails may not contain language, images, or sounds which are harassing, intimidating, obscene, libelous, defamatory, discriminatory, or which threaten physical harm.

It is the responsibility of the user to contact the Affirmative Action Officer should he or she receive inappropriate e-mail from an internal or external source.

Distribution

Distribution of messages to all users or sub-set(s) of all users will be through the College Portal, @GCC. Campus Announcements and Group Announcements are available via @GCC to distribute messages to all users and user groups.

Messages intended for all users will be considered a Campus Announcement. All Campus Announcements must be approved by the Executive Director of Marketing and Public Relations. All messages of this nature must be submitted 3 days prior to the intended posting on @GCC.

Non-College Use

Use of Gloucester County College’s e-mail is expressly for activities related to teaching and learning and conducting those activities necessary to perform one’s assigned duties and professional development activities as a College employee or student. At times, a private for-profit or a private not-for-profit entity without College affiliation may wish to use the College e-mail to distribute information, request information, conduct fund-raising, or communicate with College personnel. Requests for these services must be directed to the Chief Technology Officer, whose determination on these matters will be final.

No Expectation of Privacy/Ownership

Users should be aware that they have no expectation of privacy when using any College-provided electronic mail system. The e-mail system and all messages sent by e-mail are the property of Gloucester County College. Gloucester County College reserves the right to access and disclose all messages sent or received using its e-mail system to determine whether users have breached security, violated College policy, or engaged in other unauthorized or illegal actions.

Electronic mail sent over College-provided systems is a College record, and managers or others may have access to messages or records of system use whenever they have a legitimate or management purpose for doing so. While GCC does not actively read end-user e-mail, e-mail messages may be inadvertently read by IT staff during the normal course of managing the e-mail system. Students using the College electronic mail system should note that “deleting” an electronic message does not necessarily erase the message from the computer network. Backup copies of e-mail messages may exist, despite end-user deletion, in compliance with GCC’s technology resource management procedures. The goals of these backup and archiving procedures are to ensure system reliability and prevent data loss.

As College records, e-mail messages may be requested and released without prior notice to either the sender or receiver under certain state and federal laws. Electronic correspondence may also be subpoenaed and used as evidence in court cases.

Acceptable Communication:

Official business is the only type of acceptable communication via e-mail. This includes communications directly related to the mission, goals, objectives, and strategic plan of the college. The sender must be mindful of two main concerns when sending such messages: (1) the number of recipients should be appropriately limited to minimize the waste of recipients’ time that results from distributions that are overly broad; and (2) each electronic mail message creates a record that should be composed and directed to contribute effectively to the College’s work. College e-mail is not for personal use.

Responses to Electronic Mail:

When responding to an electronic mail message, students should take care not to respond to “all recipients” of the previous message unless it is appropriate to do so. Responses should never be made to all recipients routinely.

In general, when the original message is addressed to a tailored group, such as a team working on a matter, and the response would be of interest to the whole team, the “all recipients” response is appropriate. However, when all recipients of a message have no reason to receive responses, the response should be directed only to the sender.

The College reserves the right to automatically delete all e-mail located in the delete or junk folders on a regular basis.

Failure to Comply

Any user who misuses the electronic mail system will be subject to disciplinary action. Sanctions for inappropriate use of e-mail may include, but are not limited to, one or more of the following:

• Temporary or permanent revocation of access to some or all computing and networking resources and facilities;
• Disciplinary action according to applicable College policies; and/or
• Legal action according to applicable laws and contractual agreements.

Disclaimer

GCC assumes no liability for any direct or indirect damages arising from a user’s e-mail usage.

Additional Information

Clarification regarding the use of the College’s electronic mail may be obtained from the Chief Technology Officer.

Internet Access Acceptable Use

Appropriate and inappropriate use of Gloucester County College’s Internet technologies are outlined within the provisions of this administrative rule/regulation and apply to the use of College-provided Internet resources, including the World Wide Web, @GCC Portal, FTP (file transfer protocol), and emerging technologies.

Gloucester County College will provide the equipment and services to support access to the Internet necessary to promote its mission, goals, objectives, and strategic plan.

The College expects that all members of the College community will respect the rights of others and comply with all the laws that apply to communication and communication technology when accessing the Internet.

Account Activation/Termination

Internet access at Gloucester County College is controlled through individual accounts and passwords. It is the responsibility of students to protect the confidentiality of their accounts and password information.

All students of GCC are provided an Internet account.

ACCEPTABLE USE

Internet users must exercise good judgment in the use of this College resource. College-provided Internet access is for College business only and may not be used for personal reasons.

Appropriate Use

Students are encouraged to use the Internet to further the mission, goals, objectives, and strategic plan of the college. Activities that are encouraged include:

• Communicating with fellow students, business partners of the College, and within the context of an individual’s assigned responsibilities;
• Acquiring or sharing information associated with one’s job; and/or
• Participating in educational or professional development activities.

Inappropriate Use

Individual Internet use will not interfere with others’ use of the Internet. GCC users shall not violate the network policies of any other network accessed through their College account. Internet use at GCC will comply with all federal and state laws, all GCC policies, and all GCC contracts. Inappropriate use includes, but
is not limited to, the following:

• Using the Internet for illegal or unlawful purposes including, but not limited to, copyright infringement, obscenity, pornography, libel, slander, fraud, defamation, plagiarism, harassment, intimidation, forgery, impersonation, and computer tampering (e.g., spreading computer viruses).
• Viewing, copying, altering, or destroying data, software, documentation, or data communications belonging to another individual without authorized permission.
• Making copyrighted material available to others without permission, whether through “peer to peer” software, Web sites, or other technology.

Failure to Comply

Any user who misuses College Internet access will be subject to disciplinary action. Sanctions for inappropriate use of the Internet may include, but are not limited to, one or more of the following:

• Temporary or permanent revocation of access to some or all computing and networking resources and facilities;
• Disciplinary action according to applicable College policies; and/or
• Legal action according to applicable laws and contractual agreements.

Disclaimer

GCC assumes no liability for any direct or indirect damages arising from a user’s connection to the Internet. GCC is not responsible for the accuracy of information found on the Internet and only facilitates the accessing and dissemination of information through its systems. Users are solely responsible for any material that they access and disseminate through the Internet.

Additional Information

Clarification regarding the use of the College’s Internet access may be obtained from the Chief Technology Officer.

Network Resources Acceptable Use

GCC has computers capable of accessing the Internet and other online computer networks (collectively, “online networks”). GCC encourages members of the College community to use online networks for educational purposes under the appropriate circumstances. However, in order to protect rights and to lessen exposure to potential liability resulting from the nature and use of information a student, faculty, staff, or administrator posts on or transmits through online networks, certain rules must be followed.

Violation of online network use rules may subject the offender to disciplinary action through existing structures for students, faculty, staff, and administration. These existing structures are spelled out in the Student Catalog and Administrative Rules and Regulations.

• Passwords — Users should protect their passwords from unauthorized use. Users are responsible for all activities associated with their passwords.
• Improper Use of Copyright and Proprietary Information of Others — Comply with Federal and State copyright rules and regulations. Failure to observe software copyrights and/or license agreements may result in disciplinary action by GCC and/or legal action by the copyright owner. Any copyrighted content submitted or used with the consent of the copyright owner should contain a phrase such as “Copyright owned by [Name of Owner]; used by permission.”
• Commercial Purposes — GCC computing resources are not to be used for commercial purposes.
• Use for Unauthorized Purposes — Users should not employ the network for personal or private business, product advertisement, political lobbying, or to distribute or promote religiously oriented information.
• Use of Gloucester County College Name — You may not use, without the College’s prior written consent, the name “Gloucester County College” or any symbol, logo, or graphic used by or associated with the College or any confusingly similar symbol, logo, or graphic as part of an e-mail address, a “home page” or a domain name for any online network you utilize, originate, or register with the Internet or similar authority.
• Online Conduct — Online networks shall be used only as permitted by the College, only in accordance with applicable College policies, and only for lawful purposes. Users are prohibited from posting on or transmitting through any online network any unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, profane, hateful, racially or ethically demeaning or threatening, or otherwise objectionable material which encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, gives rise to civil liability, or otherwise violates any applicable law or college policies. More specifically, the following conduct violates College policies and is not permitted. Such conduct includes, but is not limited to:
  • Harassment — Targeting another individual, group, or organization to cause distress, embarrassment, injury, unwanted attention, or other substantial discomfort is harassment which is prohibited. Personal attacks or other actions to threaten or intimidate or embarrass an individual, group or organization, or attacks based on a person’s race, national origin, ethnicity, handicap, religion, gender, veteran status, sexual orientation, or another such characteristic or affiliation are prohibited.
  • Impersonation — Communication under a false name or designation, or a name or designation the user is not authorized to use, including instances in conjunction with representing that you are somehow acting on behalf of or under the auspices of Gloucester County College, are prohibited.
  • Chain Letters and Pyramid Schemes — Transmission of chain letters and pyramid schemes of any kind are prohibited. Certain chain letters and pyramid schemes are illegal.
  • Excessive use of bandwidth — is prohibited. Examples include, but are not limited to, game playing and downloading large multimedia files such as MP3.
  • Disruption of network users, services, or equipment — Disruptions include, but are not limited to, distribution of unsolicited advertising, propagation of computer worms or viruses, and using the network to make unauthorized entry to any other computer or computer system accessible via the network.

All policies, administrative rules and regulations, and procedures associated with college technology infrastructure, equipment, software, and use are subject to change from the information included in this catalog, on the college Web site, and in other college publications.

While GCC will do everything possible to provide quality computing facilities, it is your responsibility to ensure that your computing experience here at GCC is a productive one.

If at any time, even after taking all the precautions that you can, you still feel that your rights as a computer user on this campus are being violated, or if you are aware of other computer users who are misusing or abusing the computer facilities, please report the problem to the appropriate GCC official, such as the Director of the Academic Support Center, Director of the Library, Vice President of Student Services, or the Vice President of Academic Services. The sooner the proper authorities become aware of these problems, the sooner the incidents can be investigated and the situation remedied.

GCC must comply with the Patriot Act (Public Law 107-56) and any other current and future Federal and State legislation that regulates electronic mail and technology use. This may mean that data compiled through the use of our network may be released to Federal and/or State authorities under appropriate legal protocols.

(Policy 2011)