Authorized Use:
Campus Intranet & Computing Resources

Purpose: These procedures are established to help maintain a usable computing environment for all users of NCTC information technology (computing and communications systems). The sections below describe the institutional and individual rights and responsibilities of all users of NCTC computing and communications services. These procedures attempt to distinguish appropriate from inappropriate behaviors.

Scope: These procedures apply to anyone (whether at the College or elsewhere) employed by the College, affiliated on a temporary basis with the College (e.g. visiting professors), and all NCTC students.They refer to all information resources at NCTC, whether individually controlled or shared, stand-alone or networked. These procedures apply to both "official" and "unofficial" information, as defined in the NCTC Web Publishing Procedure.

Information resources include any information in electronic or audio-visual format, or any hardware or software that make possible the storage and use of information. Included in this definition are electronic mail, local databases, externally-accessed databases, CD-ROM, motion picture film, recorded magnetic media, photographs, and digitized information.

Freedom of Expression

Freedom of expression and an open environment to pursue scholarly inquiry and sharing of information are encouraged, supported, and protected at NCTC. Censorship is not compatible with the goals of NCTC. The College should not limit access to any information due to its content, as long as it meets the standards of legality and appropriate types of speech.

While we reject censorship, there are several forms of expression that are not protected: obscene material, child pornography, sexual harassment, or other violations of law and College policy.

(See Illegal Acts & Violations of NCTC Procedures for further information.)

Privacy
Refer also to Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act (FERPA)

Privacy in the context of electronic information systems relates to the expectations users have that their electronic communications will remain private, and to the permitted actions by administrators and other users. There are two ways in which this expectation of privacy is qualified: access approved by the College and unauthorized access.

Approved Access: The College may approve access to individual files or activity logs to satisfy open records requests, system administration needs, audits, and law enforcement orders. This access will be approved only as specified within Privacy Rights and Limitations below. Some individually-owned files are, by definition, approved for open access. Examples include Web files made available through a system-wide facility, and files made available on an anonymous ftp server. Access by other users is assumed to be approved for these types of files.

Unauthorized Access: While all users are expected to comply with this procedure and other relevant procedures, such as the Computer Security Procedure, there can be no guarantee against the unethical or illegal actions of others. The technology and openness that make an interconnected worldwide set of multi-user computer systems so valuable also makes the individual's data somewhat vulnerable. Even so, this vulnerability does not imply approval of actions which violate privacy. Files generated by individual users should be considered as private, whether or not they are accessible by other users. The ability to access a file does not imply consent to read or alter that file.

Privacy Rights and Limitations: The general right of privacy should be extended as much as possible to the electronic environment. Electronically stored information in individual files should be examined or disclosed only when authorized by the owner, approved by an appropriate institution official, or required by law. Therefore, privacy is mitigated by the following circumstances:

NCTC is an agency of the State of Texas and therefore subject to the Texas Public Information Act. For NCTC employees, electronic information created in the performance of their duties may be public records, just as are paper records. Such records may be subject to review and/or release under the Texas Public Information Act. (Refer to online Public Information Act Handbook.) In these cases, disclosure of personal e-mail or files not related to the specific issue discussed in the open records request will be avoided to the extent allowed by law.

There is an acknowledged trade-off between the right of privacy of a user and the need of system administrators to gather necessary information to ensure the continued functioning of these resources. In the normal course of system administration, system administrators may have to examine activities, files, electronic mail, and printer listings to gather sufficient information to diagnose and correct problems with system software or hardware. Sometimes system administrators may access files to determine if violations have occurred or are occurring. In the course of an investigation into alleged violations of this or other procedures, laws, etc., privacy is assumed to be relinquished by the user under investigation. (Note however, that "confidentiality" is always present.) System administrators, at all times, have an obligation to maintain, to the best of their ability, the privacy of a user's files, electronic mail, and activity logs. Privileges and responsibilities for system administrators are further delineated with the NCTC Computer System Administrator Code of Ethics.

Administrative files of the College are generated as part of the process of managing the College. Such files can be reviewed by appropriate College officials as a part of a management audit that the College is required to conduct. Generally, faculty research files and files relating to scholarly endeavor will not be subject to such a review. Computer files, including e-mail messages, will only be released to law enforcement officials in compliance with a court order.

Users should remember that privacy cannot be guaranteed. For example, a single e-mail message sent to just one person can be forwarded, without the permission of the sender, to hundreds of others, intentionally or inadvertently, with only a few keystrokes. Users should not send messages that are inappropriate (for example, those which include derogatory remarks based on race, religion, gender, etc.). Users should also be aware that deleted messages are not always deleted completely. They may appear on backup tapes or in other users' e-mail boxes.

Privacy vs. Anonymity: While every effort should be made to protect users' privacy, no efforts will be made to hide a user's identity. The real name of a student or employee of NCTC is, by law, considered public information. All users of NCTC computer systems are required to use all or part of their real name in their Internet addresses. System administrators may further define requirements for user names.

Intellectual Property

The College District encourages its employees to contribute to the advancement of knowledge by publishing and copyrighting, inventing, and patenting materials and objects of their own creation. The College District shall protect the interests of its personnel in relation to disclosure of scientific and technological developments including, but not limited to, inventions, discoveries, trade secrets, computer software, and any original works and ideas that may have monetary value. The College District shall assume the responsibility for ensuring that public funds, public facilities, equipment, and other public properties for which it assumes stewardship are not utilized for personal profit or gain. The author, creator, or inventor may receive benefits from publications and inventions according to the guidelines and conditions in this policy. The statement of policy and procedure found at Board (Local) Policy DBD is made for the purpose of defining ownership of such rights which are created by College District employees, independently or with College District support, or by third parties. Employee, as used in this policy, means any full-time contractual employee or professional support staff. (See also the section on Illegal Acts and Violations of College Procedure, which addresses intellectual property software issues.)

Authorized Use -- NCTC Students Read Carefully:

Computing resources are provided by the College to accomplish tasks related to the College's mission. These include academic, research, and administrative support activities, including social interaction between members of the College community. Usage of computing resources for these purposes is "authorized." Computing resources are connected to the campus network for the performance of authorized tasks. Accessing or attempting to access resources to perform unauthorized tasks is not permitted and is "unauthorized usage."

Authorization Restrictions

NCTC users must use only those NCTC computer resources which they have been individually authorized to use by the College. The unauthorized use of computer resources, as well as the providing of false or misleading information for the purpose of obtaining access to computing facilities, is prohibited and may be regarded as a criminal act and will be treated accordingly by the College. Users must not use College computing facilities to gain unauthorized access to computing facilities of other institutions, organizations, or individuals. A user may not authorize anyone to use his/her computer accounts for any reason. The user is responsible for all use of his/her accounts. Users must take all reasonable precautions, including password maintenance and file protection measures, to prevent use of their accounts by unauthorized persons. Users must not, for example, share a password or account number with anyone else.

Computer resources must be used only for the purposes for which they were authorized. For example, non-funded research or student accounts may not be used for funded research or private consulting without prior approval from the College. Users must not use NCTC computer resources for unlawful purposes, such as the installation of fraudulently or illegally obtained software. Any use of external networks connected to the College's networks must comply with the NCTC policies of acceptable use promulgated by the organizations responsible for those networks.

NCTC computing resources may not be used for commercial activities or financial gain unless specifically authorized. For example, certain newsgroups are established for the specific purpose of enabling users to advertise, on an infrequent basis, personal property for sale.

Personal Use
Personal use of NCTC and Internet resources by NCTC staff on personal time is permitted, as long as activities are not conducted for profit or commercial gain and usage falls within all guidelines in this Appropriate Use Policy.

Examples of appropriate personal use include: sending electronic mail to colleagues and friends around the world; reading postings within discussion groups on personal interest topics; transferring (where allowed) the full text of books and journals, software programs, or images; connecting to resources that provide a variety of information; etc. Examples of personal time include: breaks, lunch time, and the time before and after work. In areas where staff members must share equipment or resources, staff members using the resources to accomplish job responsibilities have priority over those desiring access for personal use.

Personal use of NCTC's information resources is considered to be a misapplication of state equipment if it results in additional costs being incurred by NCTC, including long distance charges, printing, or excessive disk space usage. Computing resources used for other than "authorized" purposes must be incidental and must not result in additional costs to the College. When attempting to determine what constitutes incidental use, analogy can be made to use of telephone or library resources.

Responsible Use

Some types of computer usage and personal behavior are considered to be harassing but may not be direct violations of law or other policy. These activities could include:

• sending information to USENET newsgroups or electronic mail lists that is not consistent with the stated purpose of the newsgroup or e-mail list;
• sending information to persons who do not want to review such materials;
• sending information to a person which in turn causes a computer system to malfunction; and
• sending inflammatory language and words in electronic communications.

The College is committed to providing an educational and work climate that is conducive to the personal and professional development of each individual, and to protect the rights and privileges and to enhance the self-esteem of all its members. Computer users are reminded that this procedure applies to many of the activities listed above. Users are reminded that they are responsible for their actions and the consequences of those actions, which could result in College disciplinary action.

General Responsibilities
The following are general responsibilities assigned to all NCTC computer users:

• To neither harass nor vilify others on the basis of race, religion, ethnic background, nationality, gender, political affiliation, sexual preference, age or disability.
• To be considerate of the costs and limitations of network bandwidth, storage space, paper, and other people's time. This includes the responsibility not to send/forward chain letters through e-mail, and to unsubscribe from mailing lists if you will not be checking your e-mail for an extended period of time. Another example is to refrain from publishing a web page, unrelated to academic pursuits, that causes an undue number of accesses to that page. "Undue," in this instance means that, in the judgment of the affected NCTC system administrator(s), the accesses diminish the capability of the system(s) to provide services to the users of the system(s).
• To refrain from the distribution of unsolicited information or advertising not relating to the normal activities and business of the College.
• To include adequate warning with any information that may mislead or endanger a naive reader.
• Not to publicly distribute the expressions, images, or particulars of others without their consent.
• To represent yourself, your observations and opinions, and the expressions of others sincerely and without misrepresentation.
• To add a disclaimer to the signature block when not officially representing the College, if an e-mail message could be perceived as NCTC business or opinion. (An example of a disclaimer is: "The opinions expressed here are my own and do not necessarily represent those of North Central Texas College.")
• To report any violation of these guidelines by another individual to a College official within the Computing Center, the Information Resources Council, or the Office of Internal Audit.
• To report to the system administrator any information relating to a flaw in, or bypass of, computing or communications security.

To be effective under this subsection, a notification of claimed infringement must be a written communication provided to the designated agent of a service provider that includes substantially the following:

Illegal Acts & Violations of College Procedure

The computing resources of the College, which includes the hardware, software, and network environment, shall not be used for illegal activity. Any such use of these resources will be referred to the appropriate College authorities (see Sanctions) or legal and law enforcement agencies. The following commentary outlines possible criminal and illegal uses of the electronic environment in these areas:

Obscene Materials
Obscene materials are not protected by the First Amendment. The U.S. Supreme Court has defined obscenity as "works which, taken as a whole, appeal to the prurient interest in sex, which portray sexual conduct in a patently offensive way, and which, taken as a whole, do not have serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value." The basic guideline to determine whether a work meets this definition is to ask:

• whether the average person, applying contemporary standards, would find the work taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest; whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; whether the work taken as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.

All users should be aware that posting, display or storage of obscene material to a World Wide Web home-page, Usenet newsgroup, Gopher server, or live video teleconference may subject one to possible criminal prosecution.

Child Pornography
Child pornography involves images of children under the age of 18. (Text only is not considered to be child pornography.) The law regarding child pornography, federal statute USC 18.110:2252, specifically states that "the use of computers to transmit child pornography, including knowingly uploading or downloading child pornography, is a federal offense. Knowingly making child pornography available for downloading is likewise a federal offense."

Thus, any possession of child pornography is illegal. A user who downloads such an image to their computer, state or personal, is in violation of the law.

Further, any display or storage of child pornography images on NCTC resources is specifically prohibited by law, and such use of the resources will be referred to appropriate College authorities (see Sanctions) and law enforcement authorities. Any specific instance of child pornography found on computing resources will be immediately removed. A newsgroup which includes images which fall within the legal guidelines of child pornography on a more-than-incidental basis will be removed from the NCTC news server and its receipt will be blocked.

Sexual Harassment
All forms of sexual harassment are considered to be in violation of the NCTC Policy on Sexual Harassment, and may be a violation of criminal law. Sexual harassment can take on many forms. For example, it is clear that e-mail could be used to convey sexually harassing material to another individual. Objectionable pictures can potentially contribute to a hostile environment. Thus, displaying an objectionable image where it can be seen by others in a computer classroom, a College computer facility, a departmental computer laboratory, or even a shared office is likely a violation of law. Sending or displaying images or text may be considered harassment by the recipient or viewer.

Similarly, a WWW home-page or Gopher server that includes objectionable material should not be displayed without first warning readers of the type of information that they will find if they select the hypertext link. A user browsing the Web and selecting your home-page should not be subjected to potentially objectionable material without a warning.

Please refer to the NCTC Policy on Sexual Harassment for further examples of sexual harassment and for information regarding the complaint/grievance procedure.

Theft of Software or Services
In cases where software is copyrighted or otherwise protected, it is the responsibility of users not to copy or distribute such software without proper authorization. This extends to the copying and distribution of software for which representatives of NCTC may have purchased or licensed copies, but where such copying and distribution is in violation of the purchase or license agreement. Furthermore, it is illegal to facilitate others' access to copyrighted software.

Users of NCTC computing resources may gain remote access to other computing resources, either on or off campus, and make use of that access for activity which is not specifically authorized. While the resources used may not belong to NCTC, the use of NCTC resources to gain access to these resources is an illegal act. In all such cases, NCTC will cooperate with College and law enforcement officials in the investigation and prosecution of such activity.

Any use of software or services as described above is a violation of the law and this procedure. Violators will be subject to disciplinary action and possible referral to law enforcement authorities.

It is the responsibility of each department which maintains a multi-user system to insure that all software on that system is appropriately licensed. It is the responsibility of colleges, departments and individuals to insure that the software being used on the equipment in areas of their control is appropriately licensed. This applies to individually-controlled microcomputers as well as shared access computers.

Sanctions

Any violation of this policy should be referred to the Dean of Administrative Services. Upon review, the Dean of Administrative Services may refer the case to the Dean of Students (if violator is a student), the appropriate college official (if violator is an employee), or law enforcement authorities as appropriate.

In cases involving alleged illegal or fraudulent activity, the College may, at the discretion of the respective system administrator(s), suspend access privileges to the authorized system(s), pending the outcome of legal proceedings.

References

Equal Opportunity At NCTC

It is the policy of North Central Texas College not to discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability (where reasonable accommodations can be made), disabled veteran status or veteran of the Vietnam era status in its educational programs, activities, admissions or employment policies. Inquiries or concerns should be directed to the Dean of Student Services at 940-668-4241 or to the Dean of Administrative Services at 940-668-4201.