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.  See also the College policies prohibiting discrimination and sexual harassment.

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.      If hosting a web site, provide for a method to be contacted.

7.      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 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 reserve the right to impose additional limitations on non-academic use, as circumstances require.  Computer use during class time is subject to additional limitations and conditions as may be established by the instructor.

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 the Legal Affairs Office, to believe that the user 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, and can include interim sanctions that may involve removal of computer use privileges of those suspected of violating this policy.

The College reserves the right to take down or block access to sites within its domain when a claimed copyright infringement has been formally received as per the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.   Upon receipt of a notification claim, the College will notify the site’s author and expeditiously remove access to the site containing the material claimed to be in violation.  The site will remain off-line until such time that the site author removes the material in question, obtains permission to display the material from the copyright holder or provides proof that the material does not infringe upon the copyright of another.  The College reserves the right to terminate the accounts of individuals who are found to be repeat infringers.