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Friday, May 16, 2008
FCSL Computer Policies
Florida Coastal School of Law maintains a private network of computers, printers, and other computing devices (“Network”). The complexity and sensitivity of the equipment within the Network requires that certain policies and procedures be implemented and enforced. All users who access the Network are bound by the rules set forth in this policy and subject to disciplinary action for violations of the policy. User Accounts All members of the FCSL Community are issued a user account that enables varying degrees of access to the FCSL Network and its attached Systems. Users are responsible for all usage done under their username & password. Users should never disclose their username or password. Users should change their passwords frequently and refrain from using easily cracked password. Passwords that are easy to crack include: having your user name and password the same, pet names, spouse names, last names, etc. Passwords should have at least one (1) numerical character in them. Users in need of assistance changing their passwords should contact the Computer Services Help Desk at 680-7624. Students may change their own passwords in the Computer Labs. Faculty and Staff may either change their passwords while at their computers or call the Help Desk for assistance. If users are accessing the Network from home, it is highly recommended that they not enable the “Save password” features within Remote Networking (or any other utility that may be in place to remotely access networks). While these password-saving features make it more convenient to access the Network, it is all too easy for someone else with access to the computer to remotely connect to the FCSL Network if the password is already saved. Again, users are responsible for all actions performed under their account whether the legitimate user is aware of such misuse or not.Users are responsible for reporting any suspicions of misuse to the Help Desk. The Help Desk will then contact the appropriate member of Computer Services. For security reasons, accounts suspected to be or have been compromised may be disabled without warning. User accounts are deleted 150 days after graduation!! Alumni with accounts during these 150 days are bound by all computing policies set forth for Students and other FCSL Community members. Privacy FCSL Computer Services treats all transmissions across the Network as private; however, use of the Network and all other computing resources is done so by permission of the School and confidentiality is not guaranteed. While users may not assume absolute privacy, every effort is made to ensure it. Network performance monitoring, server maintenance, lab cleanup, and other administrative duties may routinely compromise the supposed security of any or all data on the Network; however, such administrative duties are only performed by FCSL Network Engineers, and individual privacy is respected at all times. Network files, hard drives, and e-mail may also be accessed and routed by Computer Services Network Engineers in order to maintain the flow of business. No casual Network browsing or attempts to access another User’s data by any Student, Faulty, or Staff member will be tolerated. However, the network management cannot guarantee the confidentiality of any information stored on the network. Information that must remain confidential should therefore not be stored on the network. The School reserves the right to take whatever steps necessary to investigate irregular network activity, suspected violations of policy, and all other activity deemed destructive or inappropriate to the Network and its attached Systems. These steps may include direct monitoring of user account activity. Additionally, the School may access user files, including archived material of present and former employees without the user's consent for any purpose related to maintaining the integrity of the network, or for any other reasonable business purpose. Hacking No User may at any time attempt to gain access to the e-mail account or files of other Users without such user’s consent. Computer Services reserves the right to monitor any file, file folder, or e-mail account suspected of being tampered with. It is entirely possible through security log files and audit logs to determine which users are accessing objects on the Network and its attached resources. Any attempts to access data on the Network not found within a user’s Home Directory (typically the “H:” drive) or personal e-mail account is considered hacking. Port sniffers, packet traps, network monitoring tools, and other surveillance software and/or hardware are not permitted for use by any users other than Computer Services users. Computer Services may use such tools in the event that Network performance needs monitoring or in the event of tracking suspected unlawful activity. Any attempts to compromise the Network and its Systems will be vigorously investigated by FCSL and civil/criminal charges may follow where applicable. Electronic Mail An e-mail account is created for each member of the FCSL Community. Student mailboxes are limited to 35 megabytes (MB) of data. Should your mailbox exceed 35MB, an e-mail will automatically be sent to you informing you of the problem. Should you not reduce the size of your mailbox, you will be unable to send or receive mail until the size is below 35MB. Make sure to delete your unwanted Sent Items and then delete your Deleted Items folder – this is the main cause for bloated mailboxes. Computer Services will not forward any Student FCSL mail to non-FCSL accounts. For example, we will not forward mail sent to your FCSL account to your AOL, Earthlink, or other third-party account. We have made it quite easy to check mail from any computer worldwide that has Internet access via the FCSL web site. Missed assignments, announcements or other issues that arise from not checking your FCSL account are strictly the responsibility of the user. Sending harassing, offensive, or “spam” mail is a violation of this policy. While we allow personal e-mail to be sent through the system, please remember that this account is for work/school purposes, and all mail (and other data) residing on the Network is the property of the School. Excessive incoming personal mail may be deleted to preserve optimal disk space levels. We highly discourage subscribing to personal mailing lists and using your FCSL account for promotions, giveaways, sweepstakes, and other non-business related communications. Excessive amounts of mail received from such sources may be deleted without warning. Any mail that is related to running a private business or involved in unsolicited advertising will be deleted and its sender’s e-mail privileges may be revoked. Similarly, FCSL does not permit the “relaying” of e-mail. Mail relaying is when mail is sent from an outside account through FCSL’s e-mail server for the purpose of masking who the original sender was. FCSL maintains Distribution Lists that enable authorized senders to send mail to a specific group of people. Any student, Faculty, or Staff member that abuses these Distribution Lists will have their e-mail privileges revoked. Examples of abusing a Distribution List include sending mail to the entire FCSL Community to inform the Community that your child is selling candy and to see you for details. This kind of solicitation unnecessarily clogs the e-mail system and frustrates users. Electronic mail is an efficient and convenient means of communication, but problems can arise when it is used without restraint and discipline. Listserv A Listserv© server is in place for the benefit of the FCSL Community. The Listserv system is designed to allow groups, classes, and other organizations to easily distribute e-mail to members. Listserv provides many different levels of distributing, securing, subscribing people to, and administering e-mail lists. Organizations may request a Listserv list by contacting Allen Smith (asmith@fcsl.edu). Allen will detail the list creation process and provide training so that the designated member of a group may administer their own list. The system is set up in such a way that Listserv subscribers are able to subscribe with non-FCSL addresses. Should the Listserv administrator receive more than three (3) rejected messages from a non-FCSL account, that account will be unsubscribed from the Listserv system. FCSL will not be responsible for any late assignments or academic, professional, or personal consequences due to a non-working, non-FCSL e-mail address that may have been used on the Listserv system. Laptops and Personal Computers It is recommended that incoming students purchase a suitable laptop. For educational discounts visit CDWG. Computer Services will not work on personal, non-FCSL owned computers. This policy is in effect for all Students, Faculty, and Staff. Computer Services has provided instructions for remote connections, wireless, and e-mail only. Due to the workload and staff size of Computer Services and the liability issues involved with working on personal machines, it is our policy to not to work on non-FCSL owned computers. This is not meant to place restrictions on members of the Community; however, factors that are not controlled by Computer Services such as: faulty phone lines, non-standard FCSL software, out-of-date computers, pre-existing problems, sensitive data, warranty concerns, and other issues make it impossible to devote the time needed to provide personal computer support. Devoting time to personal computers takes away time that cannot be spared from FCSL’s own computing resources. Should your home computer be unable to access the School, you are welcome to report your difficulty to the Help Desk. Beyond performing a stability check on the network and servers, there is little else we can do to troubleshoot issues from remote locations. Personal Property FCSL employees are provided a business laptop or desktop system and access to a printer/fax/copy device. These devices are provided for all business functions and are supported and approved by Computer Services. Personal computers or peripherals or any non-approved device shall not be allowed to be used within the business environment and/or on the FCSL computer network and will be removed. Departments should plan accordingly their needs and requirement and ensure those are communicated to Computer Services. Computer Services maintains an approved list of equipment allowed for purchase. Network access for student laptops Students wishing to access the Network via their personal laptops for use in study carrels and other Network Access Points must make an appointment via the Help Desk. Students are responsible for purchasing a card that must meet the following specifications:
Not all cards are compatible with all laptops. You are responsible for contacting your manufacturer to make sure that the card you purchase will be compatible with your laptop. Once you set up an appointment with Computer Services via the Help Desk, a member of the Computer Services Team will install the Ethernet card and configure the laptop for access to the student printers and the Internet. IMPORTANT – Computer Services will not troubleshoot or repair student laptops. Should the Team member encounter unusual errors or other symptoms indicating a faulty computer, it is the responsibility of the student to have the issue repaired before attempting to make another installation appointment. Responsibilities of Users Computer Labs Only current FCSL students and Community Access Program members are allowed to log on to the machines in the labs. Using your ID and password to log on to a computer for the sake of any person other than yourself (children, friends, etc.) will result in the revocation of your network access. The Computer Lab machines are equipped with Deep Freeze software. These devices prevent files and settings from being tampered with and enable the Computer Services staff to quickly troubleshoot and return to service any computer that may be experiencing problems. Due to the nature of these devices, any files saved to the hard drives of these machines (the C: drive) will be PERMANENTLY ERASED upon rebooting the computer. You may save your work to a personal floppy disk (A: drive), USB storage device or to your personal folder on the H: drive (\\fcsl4\home). As with e-mail, your home directory storage space is intended to store your academic work while at FCSL. Stored items that are deemed to disrupt the Network and/or potentially cause copyright infringement will be removed. It is your responsibility to save your work often. We recommend that you save your files after every few sentences (simply hit Ctrl+S). Also, we recommend that you save your work in three (3) places: one floppy disk that you leave at home with a recent copy of your file; one floppy disk that you work on at school; one USB store device, and on your personal folder on the H: drive. These guideline are not meant to cause extra work for the User, rather, they may save the User from extra work should a computer emergency occur in which no backup copies of the data exist. Please allow yourself enough time before your papers are due to compensate for any problems (either caused by you or any computer equipment) to be addressed. If you have a large paper due in the morning, it is recommended that you print it the previous day to avoid such unforeseen circumstances as long print queues, faulty disks or other time consuming emergencies. SoftwareSoftware on the network is owned by or licensed to FCSL and is protected by copyright and other laws, together with licenses and other contractual agreements. You agree not to make unauthorized copies of licensed software for your own use. FCSL’s software policy is taken very seriously and violators of it, whether they are Faculty, Staff, or Student, will be punished. Software piracy and fraud is extremely costly to an institution’s finances and reputation. Computer Services reserves the right to periodically run unannounced software audits of all computer systems attached to the Network. These procedures are necessary to stay within software piracy guidelines (see www.siia.net). NO PERSONAL SOFTWARE MAY BE INSTALLED ON ANY FCSL-OWNED COMPUTERS. All software must come through Computer Services. This includes software for which you may have extra licenses for from home computers, freeware, shareware, beta/test software and all other software not installed by a member of Computer Services. As these machines are owned by FCSL, FCSL must be the license holder. This policy is not meant to stifle productivity, rather, it is meant to respect the licensing guidelines of software manufacturers as well as reduce the burden of troubleshooting computers with non-FCSL standard software titles. Financial and criminal penalties may be incurred by FCSL for pirated/non-licensed software. These penalties may be passed on to the offender. Software piracy and license fraud is a serious crime and results in extraordinarily high fines (usually twice the value of the pirated software title). Please see Mark Sabbattini in Computer Services should you have any questions or comments regarding software licensing at FCSL. Fair Use guidelines for Educational Multimedia:The following are the highpoints of how Educators may use Multimedia in the classroom and not violate copyright laws. You are encouraged to read the full text before using multimedia compilations in the classroom. The full text may be found here: http://www.utsystem.edu/OGC/IntellectualProperty/ccmcguid.htm The high point sections are: |
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Florida Coastal School of Law - 8787 Baypine Road - Jacksonville, FL 32256 - (904) 680-7700 |