YC Terms of Use / Acceptable Use Statement

Revised 01/02/2009

Yavapai College Acceptable Use Statement

Yavapai College provides technological resources to students, faculty, staff and community users in support of programs at the College. Computing resources include local area networks and connections to other computer networks – specifically, but not exclusively, the Internet, as well as e-mail and voice mail accounts. Students, faculty, staff and community users share the responsibility of ensuring that technological resources are used effectively, abiding by the laws, policies, and good practices which apply to their use.

The following policies relate to the use of Yavapai College computing resources. These policies are in addition to existing Yavapai College policies on plagiarism and appropriate use of facilities.

Policy Details:

1. Technological equipment and resources are owned by the College and are to be used for educational and work related purposes only. Facilities will not be used for non-College sanctioned commercial purposes or the installation of fraudulently or illegally obtained software or data.
2. Yavapai College technological equipment and resources must be used in accordance with the Copyright Guidelines. Use of YC technological equipment and resources to illegally copy, download, access print or store copyrighted material is strictly forbidden. For example, file swapping of copyrighted material such as music or movies is strictly prohibited. Users found to violate this policy will have their accounts terminated and their privileges to use Yavapai College technological equipment and resources revoked. Peer-to-Peer file sharing (P2P) is prohibited on the campus network at Yavapai College (Reference P2P File Sharing Policy).
3. An account assigned to an individual must not be used by others. The individual is responsible for the proper use of the account, including password protection. The individual must take all reasonable precautions, including password maintenance and file and directory protection measures, to prevent use of their account by others.
4. Programs and files will be made available to faculty and staff as needed for teaching and administration. The College will make reasonable efforts to maintain confidentiality from unauthorized access. Users should not use College technological resources when confidentiality for personal reasons is required. Student records will be confidential in accordance with federal and state laws, and College policies.
5. Copying, renaming, changing, or deleting files belonging to the College or any other user with malicious intent is against policy. Information Technology Services may access others' files when necessary for the maintenance of the computing facilities.
6. College computing resources, including electronic mail and other electronic communication, will not be used to harass others. Intentional use of information systems or networks to send or receive offensive, insulting, obscene, abusive, or threatening text or images is against policy and may be a violation of state and/or federal law. Accessing pornographic or obscene material via the Internet that is not related to work or educational purposes is strictly prohibited. Promoting chain e-mail messages is prohibited. Sending excessive e-mail messages for the purpose of filling a user’s disk space or to annoy a user is prohibited.
7. Attempts to bypass standard procedures are not permitted. This includes, but is not limited to, attempts to discover another user's password, taking resources from other users, distribution or execution of a program that damages another user's files or computing resources, and gaining access to resources for which proper authorization has not been given.
8. Physical tampering with College resources is not allowed. This includes adjusting computer settings and renaming files as well as the vandalism of computers and workstations.
9. Users will not deliberately attempt to degrade system performance or to deprive authorized users of access to College computing 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.
10. Users should be aware that when transferring data between countries, certain custom laws and regulations apply. Before transferring such data, the users should obtain advice on and abide by these laws and regulations (see our Copyright Notice).
11. Any software installation on College owned computers must be approved by the ITS Department. Only appropriately licensed software may be placed on system computing resources, which include, but are not limited to, Commercial Software, Share Ware and Public Domain software. To determine the copyright policies for College-owned software, users should contact the Help Desk.
12. Personal Identification Numbers assigned for long distance phone calling to employees must be used for College business calls only. Long distance records are monitored monthly. Employees making personal long distance phone calls utilizing their PIN code will be held financially responsible for such calls.
13. Content and activity of transmissions on the college network is not private. College technicians and system administrators may monitor activity on the network as a result of their job duties.
14. 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.
15. Communication under a false name or designation or a name or designation which the user is not authorized to use, including instances in conjunction with representing that the user is somehow acting on behalf of or under the auspices of Yavapai College is prohibited.
16. Users should immediately inform Information Technology personnel of any occurrences of a contracted computer virus.
17. Authority to use the entire master list of email addresses of College employees and students rests with approved staff only. Email groups may be set up to allow targeted distribution of email, such as to the members of an academic division. Further, end users may create their own personal distribution lists. However, users should take care not to broadcast unwanted email messages. Requests to be removed from personal distribution lists must be honored.
18. Incidental personal use of college computer resources must not result in financial gain for the user or be for business purposes where the user owns the business. Incidental use for personal purposes should be of minimal time and duration and should not result in additional cost for the college.

Failure to comply with the above guidelines may subject the violator to corrective or legal action by Yavapai College. In addition, Yavapai College may require restitution for any use of computing resources in violation of the above guidelines. Users of College computing resources are also subject to local, state, and federal laws.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Yavapai College disclaims responsibility for the loss of data or interference with files resulting from its efforts to maintain the privacy and security of college computer facilities. Your use of this website indicates you have reviewed and understand this Acceptable Use Statement.