COMPUTER USE & INTERNET POLICY

INTRODUCTION, SCOPE AND APPLICABILITY
As an institution of higher learning, Western Oklahoma State College encourages, supports, and protects freedom of expression and an open environment to pursue scholarly inquiry and to share information. Access to networked computer information in general and to the Internet, in particular, supports the academic community by providing a link to electronic information in a variety of formats and covering all academic disciplines. Consistent with other College policies, this policy is intended to respect the rights and obligations of academic freedom, while protecting the rights of others. The computing and network facilities of the College are limited and should be used wisely and carefully with consideration for the needs of others. As with any resource, it is possible to misuse computing resources and facilities and to abuse access to the Internet. The following statements address, in general terms, the College's philosophy about computing use. 

This policy is applicable to all individuals using College owned or controlled computer and computer communication facilities or equipment, whether such persons are students, staff, faculty, or authorized third-party users of College computing information resources. It is applicable to all College information resources whether individually controlled or shared, stand alone or networked. It applies to all computer and computer communication facilities owned, leased, operated, or contracted by the College. This includes, but is not limited to, word processing equipment, personal computers, workstations, administrative computing systemss, minicomputers, and associated peripherals and software, and electronic mail accounts, regardless of whether used for administration, research, teaching, or other purposes. The College policy regarding Access by External Users and any subsequent revisions thereto may apply. In addition, a user must be specifically authorized to use a particular computing or network resource by the campus unit responsible for operating the resource. 

USER RESPONSIBILITIES AND EXPECTATIONS 

1. Access to the information resource infrastructure both within and beyond the College campus, sharing of information, and security of the intellectual products of the community all require that each and every user accept responsibility to protect the rights of the community. Access to the networks and to the information technology resources at Western Oklahoma State College is a privilege granted to College students, faculty, staff, and third parties who have been granted special permission to use such facilities. Access to College information resources must take into account the following factors: relevant laws and contractual obligations, the requestor's need to know, the information's sensitivity, and the risk of damage to or loss by the College. 
    
2. Anyone who accesses, uses, destroys, alters, or damages College information resources, properties or facilities without authorization, may be guilty of violating state or federal law, infringing upon the privacy of others, injuring or misappropriating the work produced and records maintained by others, and/or threatening the integrity of information kept within these systems. Such conduct is unethical and unacceptable and will subject violators of this Policy to disciplinary action by the College, including possible termination from employment, expulsion as a student, and/or loss of computing systems privileges. 
    
3. The College requires that members of its community act in accordance with these responsibilities, this Policy, the College's Student or Faculty Handbook, as appropriate, WESTERN Policies and Procedures, relevant laws and contractual obligations, and the highest standard of ethics. The policies as stated in this Policy are intended to ensure that users of College information resources shall: 
   • respect software copyrights and licenses, 
   • respect the integrity of computer-based information resources, 
   • refrain from seeking to gain unauthorized access, 
   • respect the privacy of other computer users. 
      
4. The College reserves the right to limit, restrict, or extend computing privileges and access to its information resources. Data owners-whether departments, units, faculty, students, or staff-may allow individuals other than College faculty, staff, and students access to information for which they are responsible, so long as such access does not violate any license or contractual agreement, College policy, or any federal, state, county, or local law or ordinance. However, users are personally responsible for all activities on their userid or computer system and may be subjected to disciplinary action and/or loss of privileges for misuse of computers or computing systems under their control even if not personally engaged in by the person controlling the computer or system. 

SPECIAL USER NOTIFICATIONS 

1. The College makes available both internal and external computing facilities consisting of hardware and software. The College accepts no responsibility for any damage to or loss of data arising directly or indirectly from the use of these facilities or for any consequential loss or damage. The College makes no warranty, express or implied, regarding the computing services offered, or their fitness for any particular purpose. 
    
2. Liability for any loss or damage shall be limited to a credit for fees and charges paid to the College for use of the computing facilities which resulted in the loss or damage. 
    
3. The College cannot protect individuals against the existence or receipt of material that may be offensive to them. As such, those who make use of electronic communications are warned that they may come across or be the recipients of materials they find offensive. Those who use e-mail and/or make information about themselves available on the Internet should be forewarned that the College cannot protect them from invasions of privacy and other possible dangers that could result from the individual's distribution of personal information. 
    
4. An individual using College computing resources or facilities must do so in the knowledge that he/she is using College resources in support of his/her work. The College owns everything stored in its facilities unless it has agreed otherwise. The College has the right of access to the contents of stored computing information at any time for any purpose for which it has a legitimate "need to know." The College will make reasonable efforts to maintain the confidentiality of computing information storage contents and to safeguard the contents from loss, but is not liable for the inadvertent or unavoidable loss or disclosure of the contents
    
5. Any individual using College computing resources and facilities must realize that all administrative computer systems maintain audit trials logs or file logs within the administrative computing systems computer. Such information as the user identification, date and time of the session, the software used, the files used, the computer time, and storage used, the user account, and other run-related information is normally available for diagnostic, accounting, and load analysis purposes. Under certain circumstances, this information is reviewed by system administrators, either at the request of an academic department, or in situations where it is necessary to determine what has occurred to cause a particular system problem at a particular time. For example, analysis of audit files may indicate why a particular data file is being erased, when it was erased, and what user identification has erased it. 
    
6. IS employees and system administrators do not routinely look at individual data files. However, the College reserves the right to view or scan any file or software stored on the computer or passing through the network, and will do so periodically to verify that software and hardware are working correctly, to look for particular kinds of data or software (such as computer viruses), or to audit the use of College resources. Violation of policy that come to the attention of College officials during these and other activities will be acted upon. User data on the administrative computing systems will be periodically copied to backup tapes. The College cannot guarantee confidentiality of stored data. Users should be aware that use of one of the data networks, such as the Internet, and electronic mail and messages, will not necessarily remain confidential from third parties outside the College in transit or on the destination computer system, as those data networks are configured to permit fairly easy access to transmissions.
    
7. The system administrator is authorized to take all reasonable steps and actions to implement and enforce the usage and service policies of the system and to provide for security of the system. System administrators operating computers and networks may routinely monitor and log usage data, such as network session connection times and end-points, CPU and disk utilization for each user, security audit trails, network loading, etc. These units may review this data for evidence of violation of law or policy and for other lawful purposes. System administrators may access computer user files at any time for maintenance purposes. System administrators may access other files for the maintenance of networks and computer and storage systems, such as to create backup copies of media. 
    
8. When system response, integrity, or security is threatened, a system administrator is authorized to access all files and information necessary to find and correct the problem or otherwise resolve the situation. 

AUTHORIZED USER PURPOSES 
Harassment of another individual on the network or connected systems is not permitted at any time. Computer users shall not intentionally develop or use programs, which harass other computer users of the facility, infiltrate the system, or damage the software or hardware components of the system. 

Use of the electronic communication facilities (such as MAIL or PHONE, or systems with similar functions) to send fraudulent, harassing, obscene, indecent, profane, intimidating or other unlawful messages is prohibited by state law. Also, the electronic communication facilities are not to be used for the transmission of commercial or personal advertisements, solicitations, promotions, destructive programs, or any other unauthorized use. Messages relating to or in support of illegal activities may be reported to the authorities.

Should any student, faculty, staff or any user of the Western computer facilities complain of sexual harassment by virtue of obscene images, video or text, the person or persons who is/are the source of the complaint will have computer lab privileges revoked. If needed, special workstations are available for research in sensitive areas. These workstations are located in the Learning Resource Center.

All software protected by copyright shall not be copied except as specifically stipulated by the owner of the copyright. Protected software is not to be copied into, from, or by any Western facility or system, except in accordance with the license. This means that such computer and microcomputer software may only be copied in order to create back-up copies, if so licensed. Additional copyright information is available in the Western Computer Software Usage/Copyright Policy.

The number of copies and distribution of the copies may not be done in such a way that the number of simultaneous users exceeds the number of original copies purchased, unless otherwise stipulated in the purchase contract.

Images and written materials available via electronic resources may be subject to copyright laws. Individual users are responsible for acquiring the appropriate permissions for any usage of such materials. 

COMPUTER EQUIPMENT USAGE 
Computer Equipment in the Western labs is primarily intended, although not exclusively, for classroom-related use by Western students, faculty and staff that have been assigned an account. The usage criteria is as follows: 

1. Usage directly related to classroom assignments: These include assignments in a computer course or assignments in another academic course.
2. Usage directly related to a Western function: These include clerical work of college reports, faculty dossier, in-house equipment training, etc. Usage for these purposes is both acceptable and encouraged. 
3. Personal usage: Included in this category are classroom assignment papers, reports, theses or dissertations as well as any other personal usage.

FOR-PROFIT USE MAY BE PROHIBITED. 
Computer users shall use care to ensure that they do not use programs or utilities which interfere with other computer users of the facility or which infiltrate or modify the system or an account. This includes all network links and damages caused to the software or hardware components of the system. 

The well being of all computer users depends on the availability and integrity of the system. Any defects discovered in system accounting or system security are to be immediately reported to the Information Services so that steps can be taken to investigate and solve the problem. The cooperation of all users is needed to ensure prompt action.

The integrity of the system is maintained by password protection of accounts. By law, a computer user who has been authorized to use an account may be subject to both civil and criminal liability if the account is made available to unauthorized persons without appropriate permission. If sharing is necessary, it is advisable to authorize access in writing (where possible) to protect yourself when using someone else's account. 

Computer users shall not intentionally seek, provide, modify information in, or obtain copies of files, programs, or passwords belonging to other computer users without the permission of those other computer users. This includes all system files and accounts.

The well-being of all computer users depends on the availability and integrity of the system. Any defects discovered in the system accounting or system security are to be reported to the appropriate system administrators so that steps can be taken to investigate and solve the problem. The cooperation of all users is needed to ensure prompt action. The integrity of most systems is maintained by password protection of accounts. A computer user who has been authorized to use such a protected account may be subject to both criminal and civil liability, as well as College discipline, if the user discloses a password or otherwise makes the account available to others without the permission of the system administrator.

COMPUTER LAB RULES
Lab hours change from one semester to another and will be posted. If you have questions, you may contact Information Services at 477-7907 or the appropriate department with which a lab is associated. A lab may be closed without prior notice in the event that a lab attendant is not available for supervision or if emergency work/maintenance on computer(s)/network(s) is required. 

Computer lab staff and work-studies may not be utilized by any faculty, staff or student for any services outside their normal duties (e.g. helping to enter a report or other paper into the word processor, repairing a computer, help with software, etc.) Except by special circumstances, individuals without a computer/network account with Western will not be given access to Western equipment. Not all software will be loaded on every machine or in every lab. 

All users are expected to abide by the following rules, which include, but are not limited to, the following: 

• No food, drinks, or tobacco products are generally allowed 
• No children or visitors 
• No duplication or sharing of software programs or files 
• Do not write or send abusive messages to others 
• Do not reveal your personal address or phone number or those of students or colleagues 
• Do not swear, use vulgarities or any other inappropriate language 
• Do not provide any other user with your password 
• Do not display video or materials that may be sexually, ethnically or otherwise offensive to another person 
• Excessive noise, which disrupts other lab users, is not permitted 

Users will be required to surrender a current Western ID if asked in all academic computing labs. Limited access may be provided with a driver's license in the LRC at the discretion of the library director.

Western reserves the right to limit a computer user's session if there are insufficient resources or if the user is determined by appropriate authorities to be acting in an irresponsible or unlawful manner. Western also reserves the right to cancel, restart or place a hold on a job, process or program to protect or to improve system performance if necessary. 

COMPUTER / NETWORK ACCOUNTS 
At Western, there are three types of Computer Lab accounts: 

A College Account is the property of Western and is to be used by staff or faculty for administrative or academic work. The College Accounts are subject to applicable College policies, copyright and intellectual property rights and applicable federal and state laws. Account privilege and access to a College Account or information is to be authorized by the manager or department head.

A Student Account is the property of Western and is to be used for educational work related to the student's association with the institution. Student Accounts are subject to applicable College policies, copyright and intellectual property rights and applicable federal and state laws. Student computer/email accounts will in most cases consist of the first name + last name. You will be assigned a password. (Example: for John Doe the account would be johndoe@western.cc.ok.us). Account application forms will be available in the Information Service's Office in the LRTC. Complete this form and return it to the IS office. During the first 2 weeks of the semester a generic password and username will be assigned to allow immediate access to Western's academic computing resources. Once you apply for an account you will need to allow 1 week for processing. Instructions for accessing your computer account are available on the Western Web Page

An Affiliate Account, is the property of Western and is provided to individuals or groups who are not directly associated with the institution, but, whose access to the network has a clear and distinct connection to the College and carries with it some intrinsic value for the institution. Affiliate Accounts shall be the property of the College, are subject to applicable College policies, copyright and intellectual property rights and applicable federal and state laws. The Chief Technology Officer must authorize account privilege and access to an Affiliate Accounts or information

The privileges afforded by any account may be revoked immediately by Western at any time for failure to follow rules or attempts to: 

1. Defeat the security systems of any computer,
2. Circumvent the accounting system,
3. Use an account without authorization, or 
4. Use accounts for other than intended purposes,

Use of an account which invades the rights of privacy or which misappropriate the data or files of others may also subject the wrongdoer to both criminal and civil liability. Western reserves the right to bar a computer user from a College, Student or Affiliate Account if Western officials determine impropriety. 

To ensure the existence of this information resource environment, members of the College community will take actions, in concert with State and Federal agencies and other interested parties, to identify and set up technical and procedural mechanisms to make the information technology environment at Western Oklahoma State College and its internal and external networks resistant to disruption.

EMAIL ACCOUNTS 
Western Oklahoma State College does not at this time provide student email accounts. However, we are, utilizing a free service provided by Everyone.net. This service will provide you with an email account with the following address. yourname@wosc.every1.net. A student may sign up for this service through the Western web page in the Technology on Campus section. If you choose to use an alternate service such as Hotmail or Yahoo, links are provided on Western's home page for those two services. Other services are available as well and Western does not endorse any of these free services over another, but only provide links to the listed services above as a convenience for students. If for some reason you need an official western account with the following format: yourname@wosc.edu please come by the Information Service Office in the LRTC to sign up for this service. Your application will be evaluated on a case by case basis.