Acceptable Use Guidelines For Casper College Computing Resources

Purpose

These guidelines  are designed to govern the use of the computer resources
and internet access available to all staff, faculty, students and guests of Casper College.
The intent of this document is to help protect the system from harmful and illegal
activities, to ensure that equal access is available to all users, and to provide quality and
efficient technology in order to make our jobs and education more productive.
Computing resources include, but are not limited to telephones, fax machines, printers,
host computer systems and their services, internet access, office and peripheral
computers, servers, hardware, software or data files. These resources are intended for
academic and college related use.

Section I. General Guidelines

• All users must read, understand and agree to abide by these guidelines and
policies. (Link to this document on-line goes here.)
• Users who do not observe the guidelines may be subject to the loss of computer
resource privileges and could be subject to civil and criminal penalties.
Violations by faculty or staff are subject to sanctions up to and including
termination of employment. Violations by students are subject to sanctions up to
and including expulsion.

Section II. All users of the Casper College computing resources are asked to do the
following:
• Maintain appropriate system security, including the protection of personal
passwords, so that computing resources are not subject to unauthorized use.
Personal passwords are not to be made available to students and non-college
employees without prior approval from the Enterprise System Coordinator.
• Respect the rights of others to privacy, freedom from theft, harassment, or
copyright infringement.
• Report security violations, including theft, vandalism, or unauthorized access, to
Casper College Security.
• Share resources equitably by avoiding activities that place a burden on the system
resources, including, but not limited to streaming audio or streaming video that is
not directly related to academic endeavors.
• Each user is responsible for taking all reasonable precautions to ensure that
viruses are not introduced into the college network. The IT department will
provide adequate virus, spyware and similar preventative software as well as
guidelines on how and when to use this software.
• When possible and/or practical, software should be requested and installed
through the IT department. This request is designed to allow the IT department to
keep track of all licensing agreements in order to comply with copyright laws. It
also allows the IT department to identify possible software incompatibility issues.
If software is installed or downloaded by the user, a copy of the software or a
copy of the registration information should be provided to the IT department for
their records. Request forms are available online and upon request.
• Users may personalize the settings on their personal office computer as long as
those settings do not interfere with the operating performance of that computer.
Personal settings may not be applied to shared computers such as those in labs or
in an office setting with multiple users without the permission from the IT
department, lab supervisor, or unless all users to the computers in question agree
to those changes.
• Users understand that the hardware, college provided software, and other
computing resources are the property of Casper College. Individuals may retain
the ownership of personal data stored on this equipment. However, the user must
also understand that Casper College does not guarantee the safety nor will it
provide technical support for personal data.
• Faculty and Staff users are provided with a network “Home” folder for data
storage and this data is backed up on a nightly basis. They may also be provided
with a shared folder on the colleges’ network storage; however this data may not
be backed up by IT. For shared network folder data as well as any other data not
backed up by IT, such as that saved on computer hard drives, it is the owners
responsibility to backup said data to CD, DVD or other local media for
safekeeping and disaster recovery.

Section III. Users are prohibited from the following:
• Using Casper College computing owned resources to operate a non-college
enterprise for personal financial gain.
• Using Casper College owned resources to take or solicit orders on an on-going or
routine basis or advertising personal services or carrying out the business
activities of a for-profit and not-for-profit entity without the prior approval. See
Soliciting Policy 3950:02.
• Downloading files to the hard drive or changing personal settings on lab stations
without the direction of the instructor or lab supervisor. Computer lab staff
reserves the right to impose additional limitations on non-academic use, as
circumstances require.
• Engaging in any intentional, knowing or reckless act that results in denial of
service, or damage or destruction to College equipment, property or facilities.
• Disclosing or disseminating college confidential records to any unauthorized
person.
• Using College owned resources in an illegal or unethical manner. Such usage
includes but is not limited to:
o The downloading, storage, viewing, transmission, production, sale,
purchase or trading of sexually explicit material which includes the images
or purported images of people under eighteen years of age or any other
sexually explicit material that shows or purports to show the death or
torture of any person, regardless of whether the images are of an actual
person, whether they are simulated, or whether they are composite images.
o The solicitation or attempted solicitation for sexual conduct, visitation or
travel for sexual activity, including the transmission of sexually explicit
images of any person under the age of eighteen or purported to be under
the age of eighteen, regardless of the physical location of such person and
regardless of whether the person is actually under the age of eighteen.
o Conduct that violates federal Homeland Security provisions concerning
engaging in or supporting terrorist activity or violations of national
security provisions.
o Conduct that constitutes a violation of federal, state, county or city laws,
statutes or ordinances concerning theft, fraud, money laundering, identity
theft or other financial crimes.
o Conduct that constitutes a violation of federal, state, county or city laws,
statutes or ordinances concerning harassment, intimidation or hate crimes.
o Conduct that involves intentional destruction or damage to computer or
data resources of any person or entity including, but not limited to,
hacking, phishing and intentional virus creation or transmission.
o Unauthorized attempts to monitor or capture any network traffic or other
electronic communication;
o 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;
o Possessing, installing, distributing or running on any system connected
with or 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;
o Using computing resources in such a way as to hide the identity of the user
or pose as another person;
o 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.
o Downloading pornography, illegal data, or other material that may harm,
harass or produce a hostile environment to others.
Section IV. 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 computing resources,
hardware, and software are the property of Casper College. Personal data is not supported
or protected by Casper College. The IT department will attempt to contact the user of
any single or faculty assigned computer prior to gaining access to that computer.

Section V. 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 actual 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 vice president, to believe that the suspect is committing
such a violation.
• IT 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, file or document read.

Section VI. Email Guidelines
• The Department of Information Technology (DoIT) provides support Google Apps including Gmail Services.

DoIT does not endorse or support the use of any other email clients such as Outlook.

• College email accounts should be used only for official communications. Users
should not disclose their college email address to individuals, services, businesses
or in social networking sites and web forms unless related to official college
business. The DoIT reserves the right to disable or modify any college email
account that is misused or has a negative impact on the performance of the email
system or network.

• Students: After graduation, access and forwarding ends after 6 months. Data and resources are archived after 30 days thereafter.
• Faculty:  Access to FAS online resources, including Google Apps email and calendar, will expire 30 days after the Faculty member’s designated last day of work.  Data and resources are archived after 30 days thereafter.  NOTE:  Emeritus faculty and staff accounts may be continued on request of the employee and approval of the Director of Information Technology.
• Staff: Access to online resources, including Google Apps email and calendar, will expire immediately after a staff member’s designated last day of work.  Data and resources are are archived after 30 days thereafter.

Section VII. Network Login Guidelines
• Users can only be logged into one campus computer at a time. Multiple
concurrent logins for Faculty and Staff can be requested. Concurrent login
connections are limited as a simple security precaution. It is the users’
responsibility to logout of computers left unattended to minimize the risk of
malicious user activity including the viewing or theft of personal information,
unauthorized access to network resources and attempts to compromise network
system security. Please be advised that a user is responsible and accountable for
all activity that occurs on a computer that user is logged into even if unattended.