Faculty and Contract Staff Handbook
(7) Administrative Policies
(7A) FISCAL, SAFETY, AND HEALTH POLICIES
(7B) COMPUTER POLICIES
(7C) USE OF TRINITY UNIVERSITY FACILITIES
(7D) CONFERENCES AND SPECIAL PROGRAMS
(7B) COMPUTER POLICIES
For a summary of recent changes to this chapter, see Chapter 9A: Summary of Recent Revisions to this Handbook.
Contents of this page:
Code of Ethics for Computing (Violations; Using Software: A Guide to the Ethical and Legal Use of Software for Members of the Academic Community; Intellectual Property and the Legal and Ethical Use of Software; Alternatives to Explore for Acquisition of Software; Restrictions on the Use of Software)
I. CODE
OF ETHICS FOR COMPUTING
(Approved by the President of Trinity University April 18, 1992 and
the Board of Trustees October 6, 1995)
Because we are an academic community, the faculty, students, and staff of Trinity University honor intellectual property, respect the privacy of data, and recognize the rights of others. Individuals who are given access to University computing resources incur the responsibility to use those resources in an ethical manner.
The code of ethics requires all computing activities performed on University equipment to be legal and ethical. The code is based on adherence to the Texas Computer Crime Statute, U.S. copyright laws, and respect for intellectual labor and creativity as vital elements of the academic enterprise.
The following list of violations expresses the essence of the ethics code. Those who commit any of these violations may be subject to disciplinary action through existing structures for faculty, students, and staff.
A. Violations
The following list of violations expresses the essence of the ethics code. Those who commit any of these violations may be subject to disciplinary action through existing structures for faculty, students, and staff.
It is a violation of the Trinity University Code of Ethics for Computing to:
1. Steal passwords or log onto someone else’s account.
2. Attempt to gain access to computing resources for which you are not authorized or via means not authorized.
3. Give others access (via password or other means) to computing resources to which they are not entitled.
4. Read, execute, modify, or delete any file belonging to someone else without explicit permission from the owner, even if the file is unprotected.
5. Gain privileges or resources beyond your authorized limits.
6. Use a system for unauthorized purposes, such as advertising for a commercial organization or running a business (faculty consulting notwithstanding, re: Chapter 5F: Consulting Policy).
7. Introduce damaging software such as viruses.
8. Damage hardware, such as by pounding, kicking, or moving it to another location.
9. Send mass electronic mailings. (This consumes large amounts of disk space. There are alternatives far more efficient. Any distribution to more than 100 recipients must be cleared in advance with the Office of Information Resources and Administrative Affairs.)
10. Harass others by sending annoying, obscene, libelous, or threatening messages.
11. Slow down any system by deliberately running wasteful jobs or playing games other than at authorized times.
12. Attempt to crash a system or exploit weaknesses in security.
13. Make unauthorized copies of software that is copyrighted.
B. Using Software: A Guide to the Ethical and Legal Use of Software for Members of the Academic Community
Software enables us to accomplish many different tasks with computers. Unfortunately, in order to get their work done quickly and conveniently, some people justify making and using unauthorized copies of software. They may not understand the implications of their actions or the restrictions of the U. S. copyright law. Here are some relevant facts:
1. Unauthorized copying of software is illegal. Copyright law protects software authors and publishers, just as patent law protects inventors.
2. Unauthorized copying of software by individuals can harm the entire academic community. If unauthorized copying proliferates on a campus, the institution may incur a legal liability. Also, the institution may find it more difficult to negotiate agreements that would make software more widely and less expensively available to members of the academic community.
3. Unauthorized copying of software can deprive developers of a fair return for their work, increase prices, reduce the level of future support and enhancement, and inhibit the development of new software products.
Respect for the intellectual work and property of others has traditionally been essential to the missions of colleges and universities. As members of the academic community, we value the free exchange of ideas. Just as we do not tolerate plagiarism, we do not condone the unauthorized copying of software, including programs, applications, data bases and code.
C. Intellectual Property and the Legal and Ethical Use of Software
The following statement of principle about intellectual property and the legal and ethical use of software was developed by the EDUCOM Software Initiative for use by individual colleges and universities. Trinity University subscribes to this statement of principle:
1. Software and Intellectual Rights
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 the integrity of authorship, including plagiarism, invasion of privacy, unauthorized access, and trade secret and copyright violations, may be grounds for sanctions against members of the academic community.
2. Questions You May Have about Using Software
What do I need to know about
software and the U. S. copyright act?
Software is protected by copyright law unless it has been placed in the
public domain. The owner of a copyright holds exclusive right to the
reproduction and distribution of his or her work. Therefore, it is illegal to
duplicate or distribute software or its documentation without the permission of
the copyright owner. If you have purchased your copy, however, you may make a
backup for your own use in case the original is destroyed or fails to work.
Can I loan software I have
purchased myself?
If your software came with a clearly visible license agreement, or if you
signed a registration card, read the license carefully before you use the
software. Some licenses may restrict use to a specific computer. Copyright law
does not permit you to run your software on two or more computers simultaneously
unless the license agreement specifically allows it. It may, however, be legal
to loan your software to a friend temporarily as long as you do not keep a copy
to use concurrently.
If software is not
copy-protected, do I have the right to copy it?
Lack of copy-protection does not constitute permission to copy software in
order to share or sell it. “Non-copy-protected” software enables you
to protect your investment by making a back-up copy. In offering
non-copy-protected software to you, the developer or publisher has demonstrated
significant trust in your integrity.
May I copy software that is
available through facilities on campus, so I can use it more conveniently in my
own room or office?
Software acquired by colleges and universities is usually licensed. The
licenses restrict how and where the software may be legally used by members of
the community. This includes, but is not limited to, software installed on all
media (hard disks, floppy disks, tapes, CDs), software distributed by a campus
lending library, and software available on a campus mainframe or network. Some
institutional licenses permit copying for certain purposes. Consult campus
authorities if you are unsure about the use of a particular software product.
Isn’t it legally “fair
use” to copy software if the purpose in sharing it is purely educational?
No. It is illegal for a faculty member or student to copy software for
distribution among the members of a class without permission of the author or
publisher.
D. Alternatives to Explore for Acquisition of Software
1. Site Licensed and Bulk-Purchased Software
Trinity University may negotiate agreements that make software available either to use or to purchase at special prices. Software available through institutional site licenses or bulk purchases is subject to copyright and license restrictions, and you may not make or distribute copies without authorization.2. Shareware
Shareware, or “user-supported” software, is copyrighted software that the developer encourages you to copy and distribute to others. This permission is explicitly stated in the documentation or displayed on the computer screen. The developer of shareware generally asks for a small donation or registration fee if you like the software and plan to use it. By registering, you may receive further documentation, updates, and enhancements. You are also supporting future software development.3. Public Domain Software
Sometimes authors dedicate their software to the public domain, which means that the software is not subject to any copyright restrictions. It can be copied and shared freely. Software without copyright notice is often, but not necessarily, in the public domain. Before you copy or distribute software that is not explicitly in the public domain, check with the Office of Information Technology Services.
E. Restrictions on the Use of Software
Restrictions on the use of software are far from uniform. You should check carefully each piece of software and the accompanying documentation yourself. In general, you do not have the right to:
1. receive or use unauthorized copies of software, or,
2. make unauthorized copies of software for others.
If you have questions not answered in this section about the proper use and distribution of a software product, seek help from the Office of Information Technology Services, the software developer, or the publisher.
Some of the information in this section was provided by EDUCOM, a nonprofit consortium of more than 450 colleges and universities committed to the use and management of information technology in higher education, and ADAPSO, the computer software and services industry association.
II. CODE
OF ETHICS FOR ELECTRONIC MAIL AND VOICE MAIL
(Approved
by the Board of Trustees October 6, 1995)
Because we are an academic community within a technical society, the faculty, students, and staff of Trinity University honor the individual privacy associated with electronic communication. Individuals who are given access to University computing and telephone resources incur the responsibility to use those resources in an ethical manner.
The Code of Ethics for Computing in the Faculty and Contract Staff Handbook and the Student Handbook requires all computing activities performed on University equipment to be legal and ethical. The Code of Ethics for Electronic Mail and Voice Mail subjects electronic and voice mail to all of the same protections afforded “paper” mail.
A. General Guidelines
The following list of violations expresses the essence of the Code of Ethics for Electronic Mail and Voice Mail. Those who commit any of these violations may be subject to disciplinary action through existing structures for faculty, students, and staff.
It is a violation of the Trinity University Code of Ethics for Electronic Mail and Voice Mail to:
1. Forge a signature on electronic mail.
2. Send abusive or threatening mail to harass an individual. This includes sexual, ethnic, religious, minority, or other harassment. Threats to personal safety will be reported to Campus Safety.
3. Send or forward chain letters.
4. Deliberately flood a user’s mailbox with mail.
5. Send mail that is deliberately designed to interfere with proper mail delivery and access.
6. Attempt to gain access to another person’s mail files without their consent.
B. Guidelines for Operators, Postmasters, Systems Administrators, Students, and Faculty
The computer systems automatically forward all undeliverable mail to the designated “postmaster.” This is a standard feature of mail systems in order to provide the equivalent of the “dead letter” office. When possible, the postmaster will forward mail (from the dead letter office) to one or both of the involved parties.
It is a violation of the Trinity University Code of Ethics for Electronic Mail and Voice Mail to:
1. Access more of the undelivered mail message body than is necessary to perform postmaster responsibilities.
2. Retain, forward, or discuss undelivered mail with others.
3. Include the message body of mail in statistical analysis. As part of system management, certain programs may gather statistics on mail usage. These statistics may include the address of the sender, the recipient, length of the message, and date.
4. Read, forward, or discuss backup mail files. Mail files may be copied as a routine aspect of system backups. This is an automatic process that does not involve any human reading of the files copied. Furthermore, some backups are archived for long-term storage. Such practices are not considered a violation of privacy.
Even with proper permission, messages contained within files shall only be read to the extent needed to assist the user involved.
5. Access a person’s mail file without prior knowledge of and prior permission from the person involved.
6. Retain, forward, or discuss those messages with others.
7. Access delivered mail without both prior knowledge of and prior permission of the recipient. Once mail is sent, it immediately becomes the property of the recipient.
If a system administrator or postmaster of a Trinity University System, in the performance of normal duties, comes upon messages whose content are clearly illegal, this Code of Ethics extends the right and responsibility to report these messages to the appropriate campus committee or to Campus Safety. Examples might include messages containing illegally obtained credit card numbers, telephone authorization codes, grade reports, criminal conspiracy, or similar items. Such items might be discovered as part of user consultation, dead-letter processing, or other tasks. Random mail browsing of electronic or voice communications shall always be in violation of the Trinity University Code of Ethics for Electronic Mail and Voice Mail and is never authorized.
A person’s user-name and e-mail address are considered to be public information that can be given out to other individuals.
The systems administrator may temporarily disable a user’s account if he/she reasonably believes that the user represents a serious on-going threat to system or mail integrity.
C. Scope
These are the policies enforced on Trinity University mail systems. Mail systems at other sites, both academic and commercial, may have policies that differ from these (i.e., policies at other sites may permit the monitoring of employee, student, or faculty electronic or voice mail).
D. Definitions
For purposes of this document we define:
III.
E-MAIL MAINTENANCE AND DELETION POLICY
(Effective April 6, 2001)
The E-mail Maintenance and Deletion Policy applies to all students, faculty and staff, and all are expected to familiarize themselves with its details. The policy affects only those folders stored on the exchange server, not Personal Folder files stored on PC hard drives or in other network locations such as the U: drive on TUCC12.
Implementing this policy provides the following benefits:
The Office of Information Technology Services runs the following scheduled processes to apply the above policy:
Times and dates for each of these clean-up processes are announced in advance via e-mail.
Also, three to four times annually the network is brought down for an extended period of time after hours to perform major system maintenance. Security and system patches are applied to the system as needed. These are usually done on Monday morning and are accomplished within 30 minutes.Questions relating to this e-mail policy or archiving procedures should be addressed by e-mail to helpdesk@trinity.edu or by telephone at (210) 999-7409.
IV. WORLD-WIDE WEB POLICY
(Approved by the President May 7, 1996)
A. Introduction. The World-Wide Web is a powerful new medium of communication and a valuable resource to many members of the University community. This policy establishes guidelines for its use with two purposes in mind: to ensure free, fair access to and responsible use of the Web by the University community at large, and to establish an “official” University presence on the Web through a consistent, clearly identifiable set of Web pages administered by the Office of Public Relations.
B. General Web Use. Any individual or group with authorized access to a University-owned computer or computer network may use it to gather information from and disseminate information via the World-Wide Web freely, subject to the terms of this policy, other applicable University policies, and state and federal laws. Applicable University policies include, but are not limited to:
C. Official University Web Pages. The University’s official presence on the Web is through a set of Web pages administered by the Office of Public Relations. Only these official Web pages and the official University print publications listed in Chapter 9B: Other Handbooks, Bulletins, and Publications of the Faculty and Contract Staff Handbook are permitted to display facsimiles of the registered University seal or the University logo; exceptions require permission of the Office of Public Relations.
Upon request, direct links will be provided from the official University Web pages to Web pages maintained independently by individual departments and University offices listed in the University Administrative Structure Chart in the Faculty and Contract Staff Handbook, and sponsored student organizations as defined in the Student Handbook. Direct links to Web pages maintained independently by individual faculty members, recognized student organizations, or other individuals or groups may be provided at the discretion of the Office of Public Relations.
D. Violations of Policy. Any violation of the provisions of Section B of this policy is necessarily a violation of an existing University policy and will be addressed through the procedures provided therein. The Office of Information Resources and Administrative Affairs has the authority to restrict or prohibit Web use which it believes to be in violation of any provision of this policy on a temporary basis, until appropriate procedures resolve the matter. The Office of Public Relations has the authority to determine whether Web use is in violation of the provisions of Section C of this policy and to restrict or prohibit such use.
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