Wellesley College Policy:

Responsible Use of Information Technology Resources

General Statement

Wellesley College provides information technology resources that include a high-speed local area network, shared network software and storage space, Internet access, computing facilities, telephone and voicemail services, electronic information services including full-text databases, and support services. Access to these resources is given to members of the Wellesley College community—faculty members, currently-enrolled students, administrative staff and union employees. Limited access may be granted to participants in special programs or to sponsored guests hosted by the College. These resources are provided to support the educational program and administrative operations of the College, and they may not be used for private financial gain for any individual or organization.

Wellesley College's information technology resources may not be used in the furtherance of illegal activities, whether the activities are conducted on or off campus. Using computing resources in a way that violates the law, other Wellesley College policies, and/or the rights of others, can be a serious matter that will be dealt with by the applicable College disciplinary procedures. In instances where outside authorities bring to the College’s attention a reasonable suspicion of illegal activity, the College typically cooperates with the outside authorities to investigate, and if appropriate, to assist in prosecution of the offense.

By sharing and using these resources, individuals accept full responsibility for their actions and agree that they will use these resources in a responsible manner, consistent with the policies of the College and compliant with local, state, federal and international laws and regulations governing the use of such resources. The fact that certain activities are technically feasible does not mean that they are necessarily acceptable. Users must abide by all applicable restrictions, whether or not they are built into the operating system or network and whether or not they can be circumvented by technical means. Users may not access any areas of the information technology resources of the College to which they do not have authorization and may not exceed any access for which they are authorized.

As members of the Wellesley College community, users of information technology resources are expected to honor intellectual property rights, respect individual privacy, show consideration for the rights of others, and behave in an ethical manner. The privileges of academic freedom and freedom of expression can be exercised by those using the College’s information technology resources, but they do not override these responsibilities in this medium. The community values and standards of conduct that inform face-to-face interactions should also guide on-line interactions.

Ownership and Accountability

The College owns and maintains the resources which its students, faculty, staff and union employees use to create and record information related to the educational program and to administrative operations. The College does not subject users’ communications or files to prior review and therefore cannot reasonably be aware of, or responsible for, material which community members may post, send or publish using its network, servers, and other resources including the Web. However, the College is committed to educate the community in responsible use of information technology resources and will respond as appropriate when notified of violations of this policy.

Information Services (IS) manages the College’s information technology resources and strives to provide a reliable and secure technology environment. Members of the IS staff are expected to adhere to the highest ethical standards regarding confidentiality of data and individual privacy. Contents of data and voice systems may not be disclosed to unauthorized persons. But system administrators may access and disclose such contents when they determine such access and disclosure are necessary to protect the integrity of information technology resources, to ensure that these resources are equitably shared, or to respond to subpoenas, court orders, or other valid forms of legal process. In addition, the College has the right to access and disclose the contents of data and voice systems when it reasonably determines that such access and disclosure are necessary to respond to health and safety emergencies or to disciplinary processes related to violations of College policies.

Individual Responsibilities

Security
The College employs various measures to protect the security of its information technology resources and of users’ accounts. However, the College cannot guarantee such security. Individuals should engage in safe computing practices by establishing appropriate access restrictions for their accounts and by maintaining the currency of virus protection and operating system patches.

Passwords (e.g., FirstClass account, domain account, Banner PIN, etc.) should not be shared with others and should be changed regularly. For your own protection and for the security of computing resources, always remember to exit from any networked applications that require a password (e.g., FirstClass, Banner, etc.) and logout before leaving a networked computer or your office computer.

Because compromised machines present a risk to the community, IS has the right to disable access to the network immediately if a machine is found to be infected with a virus or operating in such a way that network security is at risk. Users are expected to assist IS in the performance of remediation steps in the event of a detected vulnerability and must do so before network access will be restored.

Identity
Anonymous messages and forged identities are not allowed in the College’s e-mail and conferencing system. Any electronic message you transmit must include your actual username or, in appropriate cases, your organization and/or your department name. If the message is sent only with an organization or department name, individual contact information must be included. Hiding your identity or using someone else’s identity in electronic communications jeopardizes the integrity of the system and is prohibited.

You are required to register your computer and electronic devices which need an IP address through the Wellesley Computer Registration system. You may also register a computer and/or electronic device for a guest through the registration system. Misrepresenting your identity or that of your guest in the registration system is prohibited and will result in appropriate disciplinary action.

Privacy
Email is not necessarily a secure and confidential medium for communications. Intruders can obtain the contents and other information about an email communication at various points of access during the course of transmission of the communication. In addition, as noted earlier, disclosure to third parties may be required in order for the College to comply with legal process.

Privacy is also the responsibility of the recipient of an email or other electronic communication. A message sent to you is usually intended by the sender to be read only by you. FirstClass conferences are provided for use by members of the College community in order to promote effective on-campus communication. Postings to these conferences are assumed to be addressed to and read only by members of the College community. While the College has no blanket policy that would prohibit forwarding messages or postings, respect for individual privacy and consideration for the rights of others should be taken into account before forwarding email and conference postings to others. When in doubt, asking the author for consent before forwarding her/his message is the best way to protect the privacy of the sender.

Personal information provided by Wellesley students, alumnae, faculty, staff, or visitors to the College’s web site is not disclosed to third parties, unless the third party is an institutionally-authorized provider of services to the College. See the College Web Site Privacy Policy regarding data that is gathered from traffic on the College web pages. Particular College web site pages may also include their own privacy statements. When you follow a link to a web site outside the Wellesley domain, any assurance of privacy will be beyond Wellesley’s control.

Sexual Harassment and Hateful Incidents
No form of sexual harassment or hateful incident will be tolerated. See the College’s Sexual Harassment Policy and the Policy on Hateful Incidents for more information. You should be aware that untrue and/or reckless statements made about others may form the basis of a civil defamation claim.

Resource Consumption
The College’s information technology resources are shared by the entire community. Consuming an unreasonable amount of these resources or interfering with the activity of other users is not allowed. Activities that may cause excessive demands on network resources include chain mail, spam e-mail, posting unsolicited messages that are not appropriate to the topic designated for a conference, bombing a conference by relentless posts in short periods of time, or downloading an excessive number of very large files.

Intellectual Property
Copyright law and licenses protect such things as software, photographs, icons, music, movies, computer games, and text against unauthorized copying (which includes lending such things to others with knowledge that they will copy them). A computer may enable you to copy programs and other intellectual property easily, but unless you are certain you are legally entitled to do so, don't. The legal penalties can be severe and outside the control of Wellesley College. If College officials receive notice from or on behalf of a copyright owner alleging that you have engaged in a copyright violation, your access to the network will be temporarily disabled. IS staff will notify you to stop such activities immediately and assist you as needed in removing the infringing material. If you do not comply, or if you engage in repeated violations, your network connectivity will be terminated and you could be subject to other College disciplinary actions. In addition, you could be liable for damages to the copyright holder or even for criminal penalties if government authorities decide to prosecute. If presented with a properly formed subpoena, the College will have no choice but to identify the user to the copyright holder. See the Wellesley College Copyright Policy for further information.

Commercial Use
The College’s information technology resources are provided in support of the educational mission and may not be used for commercial purposes or for private financial gain for any individual or organization.

The College seal and other official logos are the property of Wellesley College. They are only for the use of academic and administrative departments, for official College business. For more information contact the Wellesley Public Information Office.

If you have questions or comments regarding this policy, contact Graham Henderson.

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