Information Systems & Technology

Acceptable Use (Electronic Access) to state the College’s policy regarding the acceptable use of access to electronic campus and global resources.

In order to fulfill the mission and goals of Randolph Community College, the College provides electronic access to campus and global resources. These resources are available to faculty, staff, and students. Selected resources are also available to adult community members. Responsible and ethical behavior is both expected and required.

This policy is subordinate to any local, state, and federal statutes related to technology resources or systems. Users of these resources are responsible for identifying and adhering to pertinent laws.

Technology used to provide electronic access includes, but is not limited to computers, storage devices, peripheral devices, software, and networks. This technology is provided in the library, classrooms, laboratories, offices, administrative settings and points of remote access.

Individual departments within the College may establish rules and regulations for the use of technology under their control. These rules and regulations must be consistent with the overall College policy but may provide additional guidelines or restrictions.

The College accepts and adopts the "EDUCOM Code of Software and Intellectual Rights" as the guiding principle for acceptable use of its computing resources:

"Respect for intellectual labor and creativity is vital to academic discourse and enterprise. This principle applies to works of all authors and publishers in all media. It encompasses respect for the right to acknowledgment, right to privacy, and right to determine the form, manner, and terms of publication and distribution. Because electronic information is volatile and easily reproduced, respect for the work and personal expression of others is especially critical in computer environments. Violations of authorial integrity, including plagiarism, invasion of privacy, unauthorized access, and trade secret and copyright violations, may be grounds for sanctions against members of the academic community."

Anyone who violates College policies (including this document) or applicable law shall be subjected to disciplinary action. This action includes, but is not limited to, prohibiting connection to or use of any campus network, disallowance of the privilege to connect computers to the campus network, prohibiting use of College computers to access any on-line network, fines, restitution, probation, suspension, expulsion, termination of employment or other action (or any combination thereof). In the case where violations constitute criminal offense, the College will contact appropriate state or federal authorities for prosecution.

Guidelines for Networking/Internet Access

Randolph Community College cannot guarantee absolute privacy in the use of its computing resources. The System Administrator or the Network Administrator has the right to view and monitor computer activities for the purpose of backups, network management, and other types of maintenance. It shall not be the policy of the College or its employees to routinely view files and messages, but the College reserves the right to review files and communications to maintain system integrity and insure that users are operating the system responsibly.

To ensure appropriate use of information systems and networks, users must do the following:

Use resources only for authorized purposes
Protect any user ID and password from unauthorized use
Access only files and data that are publicly available, or to which the user has been given authorized access
Use only legal versions of copyrighted software in compliance with vendor license agreements
Be considerate in the use of shared network resources. Users should refrain from monopolizing systems, overworking networks with excessive data transfers or downloads, and abusing disk space on workstations or network servers with personal data
Immediately inform the Network Administrator of any occurrences of a computer virus

Prohibited actions include, but are not limited to, the following:

Intentionally use information systems or networks to send or receive offensive, insulting, harassing, attacking, or obscene text and/or images
Engage in any activity that might be harmful to systems or to any information stored thereon, such as creating or propagating computer viruses, disrupting services, or damaging files on workstations or servers
Make or use illegal copies of copyrighted software, store such copies on the College system, or transmit them over College networks
Attempt to circumvent, subvert, or damage system software or security measures
Use another person's user ID/password or trespass in another user's files or folders without permission
Intentionally waste limited resources including network bandwidth
Employ the network for commercial purposes
Create, modify, execute, or retransmit any computer program intended to obscure the true identity of the sender of electronic mail or electronic messages including, but not limited to, forgery of messages and/or alteration of system and/or user data used to identify the sender of messages
Violate any copyright laws