Faculty & Staff Computer Use Policy

From CICwiki

CIC has made a large investment, and continues to make a significant investment to maintain the computer services we provide to our students, faculty, and staff. As users, we are all responsible for the care and maintenance of our computer hardware and software. The use of the school’s computers and Internet is a privilege and not a right. For this reason we expect all users; i.e. faculty and staff, to adhere to certain norms that will help preserve our computers in good condition and ensure wise use of our Internet resources so they will be available for the use of the whole community. For legal, ethical, and practical reasons CIC respects copyright laws. This means that the installation, storing, use, copying, downloading, or playing of software, graphics, music, and/or video files is prohibited whether for school or for personal use.

Below is a list of specific norms that apply to faculty and staff at CIC.

Classroom Equipment

• Each classroom has at least one computer that is designated for faculty and staff use. Students should use the computers in the library, computer labs, or student-designated computers in classrooms. Faculty and staff are responsible for locking their rooms during lunch and after school to maintain the integrity of this equipment.

Network Resources

• School network resources are for school-related uses. Users may not store photos, music, or video files in their home directories or the common drive unless they are school-related and obtained legally. Please keep your files organized and eliminate unnecessary data on a regular basis.
• The tech department makes regular backups of all data that are stored on home directories, the common drive, and email mailboxes. *Do not store critical data on the local drive (C: drive) as tech support cannot guarantee the safety of any data stored on a computer's local hard drive.
• Use of the network for commercial, political, or profit-making purposes is not permitted.
• Chat software such as MSN Messenger makes our network more vulnerable to viruses, affects our network traffic, and can frequently affect the general performance of our computers. These applications are not allowed on school computers. Specific exceptions may be made if authorized by the administration.
• Faculty and staff may listen to music and other audio files on their computers as long as it comes from legal sources such as their own CDs and is not streamed from the Internet (e.g. Internet radio stations) or stored on the network. Users should not turn on the sharing feature of programs such as iTunes as this places an excessive burden on network resources.

Licenses/Installed Applications

• CIC has an ethical commitment to purchase the licenses for all the products we make available to the CIC community. The use of any pirated material is not permitted. Users may not install any additional software on their computers without authorization. If you need additional applications on your computer, please make a request to the IT Coordinator.
• It is highly recommended that departments consult with the IT Coordinator prior to purchasing software or multimedia equipment to assure that it is compatible with CIC's hardware, software, and network structure.
• Faculty and staff should not use Limewire or similar peer-to-peer file sharing software to download music and/or videos whether for school or personal use.

Multimedia Equipment

• Any equipment that is borrowed (e.g., CDs, cameras, laptops) is the responsibility of the person using this material. Users should check out materials through established norms. Faculty and staff should sign out equipment that they or their students will be using for classes. Equipment will not be given directly to students. If the item is lost or broken due to negligence, it is responsibility of the person who signed the item out to pay for its cost. Negligence will be understood as not storing the equipment correctly when being moved, not locking up the equipment, handling the equipment in a rough manner, or loaning the equipment to another staff member or unsupervised student. If the equipment is damaged or stolen, the person responsible will be charged for repair costs, or replacement costs if deemed necessary. This may be paid out over a six-month period of time if requested. Users should not take technology equipment off campus without permission from the superintendent.

Email and In-school Messages

• All CIC faculty and staff have a CIC email address. This account can be accessed outside the school by using the Webmail link on the CIC website. Avoid sending messages with large attachments. Mailing to "all users" should only be for school-related business that affects all users. To send a quick message to another employee at the school, use the Novell "send message" and send only to the users who needs to receive your message.

Tech Support Requests

• Requests for tech support should be directed to the IT Coordinator rather than the tech support staff. Requests will generally be addressed in the order received. Examples of tech support issues are: not being able to access files on the network, difficulty logging on, and hardware failure.

Logon/Logoff/Shutdown

• Each user has a personal account on the local area network that gives access to a home directory, folders on the common drive, and an email account. Do not share this information with students or non-CIC staff under any circumstances. If you leave your computer unattended, lock the workstation to keep unauthorized users from compromising your data. Users should log off at the end of the day. Shut down computers and printers completely over the weekend or any extended break.

Copyrighted Material

• It is school policy that the use of copyrighted material from the Internet or other sources must be duly credited. CIC faculty must be an example in the appropriate use of resources when integrating web content into visual presentations or written materials.

Summer Computer Relocation

• Computers will generally remain in the classrooms over the summer. However, users should not leave personal data on the computers during this time as it may be deleted during routine maintenance.