Acceptable Use Policy

Purpose

College owned or operated computing resources are reserved for the educational, instructional, research, and administrative computing needs of the faculty, students, staff, and other individuals authorized by the College. The College’s computing resources include but are not limited to all College computers and hardware, access to the Internet or access to any College intranet provided through College owned or operated computers, online and offline storage, and network and communications facilities including cloud accessible hardware or software provided by the College. Access to these computing resources is a privilege and, therefore, it is essential that all users exercise responsible, ethical, and lawful behavior when using these resources. Users are expected to read, understand, and comply with the College’s Acceptable Use Policy.

The College monitors access to the computing resources and reserves the right, without prior notice to users, to access these resources and to use any and all information retrieved from the computing resources. Users do not have an expectation of privacy regarding their use of the computing resources, and by accessing and using the College’s computing resources, users expressly consent to such monitoring, access, and use by the College. Information contained on the College’s computing resources and in College accounts, including but not limited to e-mail, may be subject to inspection under the Public Records Law of the State of North Carolina.

The College does not attempt to articulate all required or unacceptable behavior by its users. Therefore, each user’s judgment on appropriate conduct must be relied upon. To assist in such judgment, users will follow this policy:

Acceptable and Unacceptable Uses

1. Use should be consistent with the Acceptable Use Policies (AUP) for the North Carolina Research and Education Network (NCREN), operated by MCNC and consistent with the mission of James Sprunt Community College.
2. College computing resources are to be used only for educational, research, instructional or college administrative purposes for which access is provided, and are not to be used for any unauthorized purpose, including but not limited to commercial purposes, unauthorized access to remote computers or non-College related activities.
3. An access account assigned to a user must not be used by any other individual. Users are responsible for the proper use of their accounts, including proper password protection and appropriate use of the College’s computing resources. Obtaining another user’s password, allowing friends, family, co-workers, or any other individual use of your or another user’s account, or other unauthorized use of an access account, is a serious violation of this policy.
4. All computer software is protected by federal copyright law. In addition, most software is proprietary and protected by legal licensing agreements. Users are responsible for being aware of the licensing restrictions for any software used on the College’s computing resources. Software that is not owned by the College cannot be installed on College equipment.
5. Users shall not download, reproduce and/or distribute copyrighted or licensed materials without proper authorization from the author or creator. Additionally, users shall not publish information, messages, graphics, or photographs on any web page without the express permission of the author or creator.
6. Users shall not engage in activities to damage or disrupt the hardware, software, or any communication associated with the College’s computing resources, such as virus creation and propagation, wasting system resources, overloading networks with excessive data, or any attempt to circumvent data protection schemes or uncover security loopholes.
7. Users shall not access or damage any portion of the College’s computing resources or other College property, such as College records, or use the College’s computing resources for illegal activities.
8. Users learning of the misuse of the College’s computing resources or violations of this Acceptable Use Policy should notify a College faculty member or College official immediately.

Enforcement:

Anyone found to have violated this policy may be subject to disciplinary action including but not limited to suspension or revocation of computing privileges, disciplinary review, dismissal from class with a grade of “F,” and/or termination. Any conduct, which violates local, state, or federal laws, will result in the immediate loss of all access to the College computing resources and will be referred to appropriate College offices and/or law enforcement authorities. James Sprunt Community College is not liable for actions of anyone connected to the Internet through the College’s computing resources. All users will assume full liability (legal, financial or otherwise) for their actions.

MODIFICATIONS: JSCC reserves the right to modify this policy at any time.