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Suffolk County
Community College, in its
discretion, may permit access to certain computing resources by community
residents. These computing resources
may include, but are not limited to, host computer systems, Internet access,
personal computers and peripherals, software and data files. None of these
facilities are provided for sending or receiving private or confidential
electronic information. Web site
hosting is not available.
All
users of computing resources are presumed to have read, understood and agreed
to abide by the Information Technology Policies and Guidelines.
Users
of the College’s computing resources are obligated to do the following:
1. Comply with the
utilization policies of the College’s network provider, which presently is SUNYNet/NYSERNET.
2. Maintain appropriate
system security, including the protection of personal passwords, so that
computing resources are not subject to unauthorized use. Users may not grant permission to others to
use their accounts without prior approval.
3. Respect the rights of
others to privacy, freedom from theft, harassment, or copyright infringement
by not engaging in the following:
q Unauthorized copying,
modifying, or destroying of work on the computer systems, both at the college
and available over the network, and from accessing or attempting to access
password protected or explicitly restricted computing resources for which the
user is not authorized; or
q Practices which would
create a hostile working or learning environment or cause harm to others
and/or the system as a whole, including engaging in or disseminating illegal,
obscene, threatening, or unwelcome electronic communication, displaying or
printing sexually explicit material in a public location, damaging computer
resources electronically or physically, or engaging in conduct that
discriminates on a legally prohibited basis.
4. Report security
violations, including theft, vandalism, or unauthorized access, to the
appropriate office.
5. Share resources equitably
by avoiding activities that place a burden on system resources.
6. Each user is responsible
for taking all reasonable precautions to ensure that viruses are not
introduced into the College network. Individuals
are to follow College procedures and directives to keep virus prevention
software current.
All material received on a floppy disk or other
electronic or optical medium and all material downloaded from the internet or
from a non-College computer must be scanned for viruses before being placed onto
the College computer system.
Users of the
College’s computing resources are prohibited from doing the following:
1. Maintaining or operating a
non-College enterprise for personal financial gain.
2. Taking or soliciting
orders on an on-going or routine basis or advertising personal services or
carrying out the business activities of a not-for-profit entity.
3. Using, decrypting or
duplicating software, text, graphics, photographs, recordings, or any other
tangible form of expression that would violate or infringe any copyright or
similar legally recognized protection of intellectual property rights.
4. Loading or saving software
that has not been provided by the College, unless approved by the laboratory
coordinator.
5. Changing computer settings
without permission of College staff, downloading files to the hard drive or
placing bookmarks.
6. Using computing resources
for partisan political activities or in any way promoting the candidacy of
any person for public office.
7. Sending or forwarding an
e-mail from or to a sunysuffolk.edu address that requests the recipient to
forward the message to others (e.g. chain letter), when such message is not
related to a class assignment.
8. Unauthorized attempts to
monitor another user’s password, password-protected data or electronic communication,
or delete another user’s data or electronic communication, without that
person’s permission.
9. Using computing resources
to engage in religious activity, except as may constitute incidental personal
use.
10. Engaging in bandwidth
intensive activities unless approved and scheduled in advance with the Office
of Networks and Telecommunications (e.g. IP phone, NetRadio,
NeTV, Instant Messenger, “PUSH” servers,
distributed shares such as Napster)
11. Possessing or running any
of the following protocols or services on devices connected or with access to
the College networks:
Port scanners, network monitors or other types of
utilities; routing or network serving protocols; daemons, processes or
programs that accept incoming connection
12. Possessing, installing,
distributing or running on any system connected or with access to the College
networks a program that is intended to gain unauthorized access or is
intended to or is likely to result in eventual damage to a file or computer
system.
13. Engaging in any
intentional, knowing or reckless act that results in denial of service, or
damage or destruction to College equipment, property or facilities, or that
utilizes College equipment, property or facilities to cause damage or
destruction to the equipment, property or facilities of others.
14. Using computing resources
in such a way as to hide the identity of the user or pose as another person.
15. Disclosing or
disseminating College confidential records to any unauthorized person.
Computer lab staff reserves the right to impose additional
limitations on non-academic use, as circumstances require.
Privacy
Policy
To
the extent possible in the electronic environment and in a public setting, a
user’s privacy will be honored.
However, it should be understood that material on the College server
or on College desktop equipment is College property. As such, it may be subject to subpoena or
an application to review records under the Freedom of Information Law, and it
may be taken by the College (see below) or locked from user access. Also note, this material is not totally
secure from unauthorized viewing or editing.
While the College will make every effort within its resources to
prevent unauthorized access, it cannot guarantee the result.
Monitoring: It is not the College’s practice to monitor
the content of electronic mail transmissions, files, or other data maintained
in its computing resources. Certain
limitations to this general philosophy are, however, indicated.
Any
review of files maintained on College equipment, servers and personal
computers should only be in accordance with a specific investigation where
there is reasonable cause and where the search is limited to locating
evidence of misconduct. Prior to the
search of files, the computer will be secured and the individual who is the
subject of the investigation shall be notified and offered the opportunity to
be present during the search.
Monitoring
may occur in connection with a specific investigation of the violation of law
or College policy and when there is reasonable cause, in the estimation of
the College President or Legal Affairs Office, to believe that the suspect is
committing such a violation.
Monitoring
can also occur of the applications currently in use, not the content, if
technology staff reasonably suspects that College rules are being violated.
Technology staff may also inadvertently compromise
privacy during routine network performance monitoring or troubleshooting, or
during system maintenance. Should this
reveal any activity that violates the law or College policy, an investigation
will be initiated. The number of
persons with this level of access will be strictly limited and they have been
directed to respect privacy and keep confidential the contents of any message
read.
Violations: Users who do not observe
these standards are subject to restriction or loss of computing privileges,
and could be subject to civil and criminal penalties. Disciplinary sanctions will be taken in
accordance with the procedures set forth in the Student Code of Conduct (or
any code adopted applicable to guests), and can include interim sanctions
that may involve removal of computer use privileges of those suspected of
violating this policy.
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