December 12, 2000
FDU
ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY
FOR COMPUTER USAGE
This policy is published by the Office of Information Systems and
Technology (IST) and is subject to revision. Comments and
suggestions are welcome and should be sent to Brian Domenick,
University Director of Information Systems and Technology, mailstop
T-BH1-01, or brian@fdu.edu.
This document is updated semi-annually and is available both
electronically and in printed form at each of the Campus Computing
Centers.
It is the user's responsibility to remain informed about the
contents of this document.
Last updated: December 12, 2000
FDU
ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY
FOR COMPUTER USAGE
The computing and electronic communications resources at Fairleigh
Dickinson University support the instructional, research, and
administrative activities of the University. Users of these
facilities may have access to University resources, sensitive data,
and external networks. Consequently, it is imperative for all
users to behave in a responsible, ethical, and legal manner. This
document presents specific guidelines to appropriate behavior and
use of FDU computing equipment.
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These guidelines apply to all users of computing and
electronic communications resources, and computing equipment
owned, leased or rented by Fairleigh Dickinson University.
This includes all students, faculty, visiting faculty, staff,
guests of the administration, and external individuals or
organizations. Computing equipment includes, but is not
limited to, the dialup modems, terminals and microcomputers in
public labs, minicomputers, file servers, and networking
equipment used to link these components together and to the
Internet.
Fairleigh Dickinson University is not responsible for the
content of any material the user prepares, receives or
transmits. Thus, as a condition of using the University's
computer system, the user represents that he/she is in
compliance with all federal, state and international copyright
and other intellectual property laws and agreements and other
federal and state laws, nor in his/her use of the system will
the user violate any federal or state civil or criminal laws.
Furthermore, the user will indemnify, exonerate and save the
University (and its representatives) harmless from any claim,
damage or cost related to the user's use, including any legal
fees the University decides it is necessary to incur to defend
itself.
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Those who make use of the FDU computing network are required
to behave in a manner consistent with FDU's codes of conduct.
As a user of this network, you agree to the following usage
guidelines:
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You are responsible for any computer account you have been
given. You shall set a password on the account that is not
easily guessed and shall not share this password with other
people. If you discover that someone has made unauthorized
use of your account, you should change your password
immediately and immediately report the event to one of the
individuals listed in appendix 1. You also shall not use an
account not belonging to you.
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You agree not to intentionally seek out information about,
copy, or modify password files, other users' files, or disks
and tapes belonging to other people, whether at FDU or other
facilities.
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You should not attempt to decrypt material to which you are
not entitled or attempt to gain rights you have not been
specifically granted by the owner. If you observe or discover
a gap in system or network security, you agree to inform the
Computer Center and not to exploit the gap.
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You agree to refrain from any activity that interferes with
a computer's operating system or its logging and security
systems, or that may cause such effects.
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You must be sensitive to the public nature of computer
systems and refrain from transmitting, posting or otherwise
displaying material that is threatening, obscene, harassing or
defamatory.
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You agree not to make copies of or distribute software the
University owns or uses under license, unless the owner of the
software or the owner of the license has specifically granted
permission to copy. If in doubt as to whether you have
permission to copy software, assume you don't.
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Messages, statements, and declarations sent as electronic
mail or public postings should be treated as if they were
tangible documents. From electronic identifiers used in the
transmission of messages, addressees can see the University is
the source of the message or its system is being used to
transmit it, similar to how letterhead or return addresses on
a tangible document would identify the University. To make
sure that no addressee can infer that your personal opinions
are necessarily shared or authorized by the University, it is
your obligation to clearly identify them as your opinions and
not those of the University.
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You agree not to create, alter, or delete any electronic
information contained in any system associated with the
Computer Centers that is not your own work.
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You agree not to create & send, or forward electronic chain
mail letters. You agree not to attempt to alter or forge the
"From" line or any other attribution of origin contained in
electronic mail or postings. You agree not to use any of the
university systems for sending what is commonly referred to as
"SPAM" mail (unsolicited bulk email).
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You shall not use FDU computing equipment as a means of
obtaining unauthorized access to any other computing systems.
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FDU's computing disk storage is a University resource with
costs attached and should be used with care and discretion. It
is not meant to be used for archiving programs and data not
currently being used or for storage of files publicly
available elsewhere. It is meant for current class work,
research and development projects, and temporary storage of
other files. Users shall attempt to keep their disk usage
minimized and will refrain from maintaining duplicate copies
of software already installed on the system.
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Network addresses such as TCP/IP addresses and machine
addresses are assigned by University Systems and Security
staff and may not be altered or otherwise assigned without the
explicit permission of the University Director of Information
Systems and Technology. In addition, no equipment may be
attached to the network without the explicit permission of the
University Director of Information Systems and Technology.
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The system is not to be used for the transmission of
commercial or personal advertisements, solicitations, and
promotions or for extended reproduction of political,
ideological or commercial material originated by a person or
organization. This includes but is not limited to the
execution of revenue-generating advertising programs which pay
users when the programs are run. The University Director of
Information Systems and Technology may suspend this rule when
it is in FDU's best interest to permit such activity.
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In the quantity and frequency of their personal use, users
should not create unreasonable demands on the system. Users
are reminded that for volume or frequency beyond what is
reasonable for their free access to the University's network
and systems, they should contract with private providers of
network facilities.
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Without the explicit permission of the University Director
of Information Systems and Technology you agree not to run any
of the following protocols or services:
- A.
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Port scanners, network monitors or other types of
utilities on any part of the university's network.
- B.
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Routing or network serving protocols such as RIP,
IGRP, BOOTP or DHCP on the network.
- C.
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Daemons, processes or programs that accept incoming
connectionsas a server would..
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FDUs computing network, services, and wiring may not be
modified or extended beyond the areas of their intended use.
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Network connections may not be used to provide network
access to anyone outside the University community or for any
purposes other than those that are in direct support of the
academic mission of the University.
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Department Heads and other administrators may enact
additional restrictions to these policies to further limit
usage by employees. These restrictions may include but are
not limited to: limiting time spent reading or writing
personal email or visiting web pages, and limitations on
acceptable content due to the possible exposure of screens to
other individuals.
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Users should use any available methods to safeguard their
data, including regular changes of passwords, making
duplicates of files, and encrypting sensitive data. In the
event that files have been corrupted as a result of intrusion,
you should notify a system administrator immediately. Please
note that the computer systems are not completely secure. It
is possible that others will be able to access files by
exploiting shortcomings in system security. For this and other
reasons, FDU cannot assure confidentiality of files and other
transmissions.
Information Systems and Technology and each of its departments
attempt to provide reasonable security against damage to files
stored on FDU's computing equipment by making regular backups
of systems. In the event of lost or damaged files, a
reasonable attempt will be made to recover the information;
however, the University and the Computer Center staff cannot
guarantee recovery of the data or loss of data due to media
failure, floods, fires, etc.
Information Systems and Technology and each of its departments
will make reasonable attempts to provide error-free hardware
and software on our systems, however, it is not possible to
guarantee this, and information provided by staff members is
not guaranteed to be correct.
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Users should exercise caution when storing any confidential
information in electronic format, because the privacy of such
information cannot be guaranteed.
Even though the electronic datagrams transmitted by or stored
on university equipment are the property of the University,
the IST staff will not normally log into another user account
or access user's files unless specifically granted permission
by the owner of the file. Student staff should avoid
situations where helping another student or a faculty member
would give them access to data relevant to a course that the
student staff person is currently taking.
Exceptions to this practice are made under certain
circumstances. These include: system backups, which access
all files in a user's account; software upgrades which may
require editing startup files in a user's account; diagnostic
and trouble-shooting activities, which may, for example,
require viewing the address headers of e-mail messages to
determine the cause of problems; and keystroke monitoring of
sessions to determine inappropriate use of the computing
facilities. Another situation is a suspected violation of the
tenets in this policy, the Student Handbook, Faculty Handbook,
University employment rules and practices or local, state or
federal law. If there is sufficient cause to suspect such a
situation, a user's files may be duplicated and stored for
later review by appropriate personnel without the user's
permission. Users of FDU systems are hereby informed that they
have no justified expectation of privacy in material
processed, sent, or stored on or through the systems, and that
the consent of the user to give access to his or her
electronic documents is a condition precedent to the user's
use of the system.
In the event that user files need to be copied or viewed for
reasons other than security, diagnostic, system backup or in
compliance with law enforcement, Information Systems and
Security staff will attempt to inform the user of this access.
The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) binds all
users who have access to student data. Its application
relevant to this Acceptable Use Policy centers on a student's
right to consent to disclosure of personally identifiable
information. FERPA does permit certain information to be
released without consent and this information is referred to
as Directory information. To find out specifically what
information you may or may not give out and to whom, you may
contact the Dean of Students office. There is also information
on FERPA in the Student Handbook. When you are in doubt as to
whether or not you are permitted to release some information,
do not release the information until you know for sure.
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Policy violations should be reported immediately to any one of
the individuals listed in Appendix 1.
Depending on the nature of the events, violations of this
policy may be dealt with as described in the Student or
Faculty Handbook, any relevant contracts, and possibly State
and/or Federal law or regulations. In addition, a user's
system privileges can be suspended for a specified time period
or revoked as decided by the appropriate Provost or Division
Vice President and a monetary fine on those in violation may
be levied to reimburse the University for the staff time and
other costs of investigating and rectifying the violation.
The person on whom a sanction or fine is imposed can appeal to
the Executive Vice President in writing within 10 days.
University Systems and Security reserves the right to suspend
network and/or system privileges while investigating a
complaint or troubleshooting a system or network problem.
Computer Center Contacts
Brian Domenick
University Director for Information Systems and Technology
Mailstop T-BH1-01
201-692-2414
brian@fdu.edu
Saul Kleinman
University Director of MIS
Mailstop T-BH2-03
201-692-2065
saul@fdu.edu
Ralph Knapp
Director, Computing Services (Florham-Madison)
Mailstop M140B
973-443-8689
knapp@fdu.edu
Neal Sturm
Associate Vice-President
Information Resources and Technology
Mailstop M140B
973-443-8689
sturm@fdu.edu