Ulster County Community College Technology Policy
(20) OIT staff will perform their duties fairly, in cooperation with the user community, College administration, College policies, and funding sources. OIT staff shall respect the privacy of users as far as possible and shall refer all disciplinary matters to appropriate authorities.
The first responsibility of OIT staff is to serve the user community. But regardless of what the users want, OIT staff is not free to violate copyrights, software licenses, other legal restrictions, or obligations undertaken by the College in order to obtain funding.
Although computer users' privacy is never perfect, OIT staff is expected to respect this privacy as far as possible and refrain from unnecessary snooping. Staff who must read users' files for administrative reasons must be prepared to justify their actions the College administration and to the user community.
OIT staff should not normally interfere with users' electronic communication, especially in any way that could be interpreted as favoring one side of a controversy or suppressing an unpopular opinion or topic. As far as possible, decisions affecting access to online information services should be made in full consultation with the user community, taking into account the cost of the computer resources involved.
(21) Electronic mail (e-mail) is intended for communication between individuals and clearly identified groups of interested individuals, not for mass broadcasting. The College reserves the right to discard incoming mass mailings ("spam") without notifying the sender or intended recipient. For its own protection, the College reserves the right to block all Internet communications from sites that are involved in disruptive or damaging practices, even though this may leave College computer users unable to communicate with those sites.
Violations of these policies incur the same types of disciplinary measures as violations of other College policies or state or federal laws, including criminal prosecution in serious cases.
If you believe that a violation of this policy has occurred, contact your supervisor or the appropriate unit dean.
