Acceptable Use Policy

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1.0 Purpose
2.0 Scope
2.1 Your Rights and Responsibilities
3.0 Policy
3.1 Acceptable Use
3.2 Fair Share of Resources
3.3 Adherence with Federal, State, and Local Laws
3.4 Other Inappropriate Activities
3.5 Privacy and Personal Rights
3.5.1 Privacy in Email
3.6 User Compliance
4.0 Related Policies and Links

1.0 Purpose

The computing resources at St. Peter Claver School support the educational, instructional, research, and administrative activities of the School and the use of these resources is a privilege that is extended to members of the St. Peter Claver community. As a user of these services and facilities, you have access to valuable School resources, to sensitive data, and to internal and external networks. Consequently, it is important for you to behave in a responsible, ethical, and legal manner.

In general, acceptable use means respecting the rights of other computer users, the integrity of the physical facilities and all pertinent license and contractual agreements. If an individual is found to be in violation of the Acceptable Use Policy, the School will take disciplinary action, including the restriction and possible loss of network privileges. A serious violation could result in more serious consequences, up to and including suspension or termination from the School. Individuals are also subject to federal, state and local laws governing many interactions that occur on the Internet. These policies and laws are subject to change as state and federal laws develop and change.

This document establishes specific requirements for the use of all computing and network resources at St. Peter Claver School.

2.0 Scope

This policy applies to all users of computing resources owned or managed by St. Peter Claver School. Individuals covered by the policy include (but are not limited to) St. Peter Claver faculty and visiting faculty, staff, students, alumni, guests or agents of the administration, external individuals and organizations accessing network services via St. Peter Claver's computing facilities.

Computing resources include all school owned, licensed, or managed hardware and software, and use of the school network via a physical or wireless connection, regardless of the ownership of the computer or device connected to the network.

These policies apply to technology administered in individual departments, the resources administered by central administrative departments (such as the School Libraries and Computing and Information Services), personally owned computers and devices connected by wire or wireless to the campus network, and to off-campus computers that connect remotely to the School's network services.

2.1 Your Rights and Responsibilities

As a member of the School community, the school provides you with the use of scholarly and/or work-related tools, including access to the Library, to certain computer systems, servers, software and databases, to the campus telephone and voice mail systems, and to the Internet. You have a reasonable expectation of unobstructed use of these tools, of certain degrees of privacy (which may vary depending on whether you are a School employee or a matriculated student), and of protection from abuse and intrusion by others sharing these resources. You can expect your right to access information and to express your opinion to be protected as it is for paper and other forms of non-electronic communication.

In turn, you are responsible for knowing the regulations and policies of the School that apply to appropriate use of the School's technologies and resources. You are responsible for exercising good judgment in the use of the School's technological and information resources. Just because an action is technically possible does not mean that it is appropriate to perform that action.

As a representative of the St. Peter Claver School community, you are expected to respect the School's good name in your electronic dealings with those outside the School.

3.0 Policy

3.1 Acceptable Use

  • You may use only the computers, computer accounts, and computer files for which you have authorization.

  • You may not use another individual's account, or attempt to capture or guess other users' passwords. [ Computing Password Policy ]

  • You are individually responsible for appropriate use of all resources assigned to you, including the computer, the network address or port, software and hardware. Therefore, you are accountable to the School for all use of such resources. As an authorized St. Peter Claver School user of resources, you may not enable unauthorized users to access the network by using a St. Peter Claver computer or a personal computer that is connected to the St. Peter Claver network. [ Network Connection Policy ]

  • The school is bound by its contractual and license agreements respecting certain third party resources; you are expected to comply with all such agreements when using such resources.

  • You should make a reasonable effort to protect your passwords and to secure resources against unauthorized use or access. You must configure hardware and software in a way that reasonably prevents unauthorized users from accessing St. Peter Claver's network and computing resources.

  • You must not attempt to access restricted portions of the network, an operating system, security software or other administrative applications without appropriate authorization by the system owner or administrator. [ Guidelines for Safeguarding Information ]

  • You must comply with the policies and guidelines for any specific set of resources to which you have been granted access. When other policies are more restrictive than this policy, the more restrictive policy takes precedence.

  • You must not develop or use programs, software, processes, or automated transaction-based commands that disrupt other computer or network users, or that damage or degrade performance, software or hardware components of a system.

  • Do not download and/or use tools that are normally used to assess security or to attack computer systems or networks (e.g., password "crackers", vulnerability scanners, network sniffers, etc.) unless you have been specifically authorized to do so by IT Security in CIS.

See Acceptable Use Examples to clarify St. Peter Claver's interpretation of acceptable use.

3.2 Fair Share of Resources

Computing and Information Services, and other School departments which operate and maintain computers, network systems and servers, expect to maintain an acceptable level of performance and must assure that frivolous, excessive, or inappropriate use of the resources by one person or a few people does not degrade performance for others. The campus network, computer clusters, mail servers and other central computing resources are shared widely and are limited, requiring that resources be utilized with consideration for others who also use them. Therefore, the use of any automated processes to gain technical advantage over others in the St. Peter Claver community is explicitly forbidden.

The School may choose to set limits on an individual's use of a resource through quotas, time limits, and other mechanisms to ensure that these resources can be used by anyone who needs them. Please review the Fair Share of Resources section of the "Acceptable Use Examples" for further clarification.

3.3 Adherence with Federal, State, and Local Laws

As a member of the St. Peter Claver School community, you are expected to uphold local ordinances and state and federal law. Some St. Peter Claver guidelines related to use of technologies derive from that concern, including laws regarding license and copyright, and the protection of intellectual property.

As a user of St. Peter Claver's computing and network resources you must:

  • Abide by all federal, state, and local laws.

  • Abide by all applicable copyright laws and licenses. St. Peter Claver School has entered into legal agreements or contracts for many of our software and network resources which require each individual using them to comply with those agreements.

  • Observe the copyright law as it applies to music, videos, games, images, texts and other media in both personal use and in production of electronic information. The ease with which electronic materials can be copied, modified and sent over the Internet makes electronic materials extremely vulnerable to unauthorized access, invasion of privacy and copyright infringement.

  • Do not use, copy, or distribute copyrighted works (including but not limited to Web page graphics, sound files, film clips, trademarks, software and logos) unless you have a legal right to use, copy, distribute, or otherwise exploit the copyrighted work. Doing so may provide the basis for disciplinary action, civil litigation and criminal prosecution.

Please visit St. Peter Claver School's Copyright and Fair Use web pages for full discussion of your legal obligations. See also the Copyright Infringement Policy, which details the policies and procedures St. Peter Claver School follows in responding to notifications of alleged copyright infringements on the School network.

3.4 Other Inappropriate Activities

Use St. Peter Claver's computing facilities and services for those activities that are consistent with the educational, research and public service mission of the School. Other prohibited activities include:

  • Activities that would jeopardize the School's tax-exempt status.

  • Use of St. Peter Claver's computing services and facilities for political or personal economic gain.

3.5 Privacy and Personal Rights

  • All users of the school's network and computing resources are expected to respect the privacy and personal rights of others.

  • Do not access or copy another user's email, data, programs, or other files without the written permission of St. Peter Claver's IT Security Officer, who is bound to the procedures outlined at Procedures for Emergency Account and Information Access.

  • Be professional and respectful when using computing systems to communicate with others; the use of computing resources to libel, slander, or harass any other person is not allowed and could lead to school discipline as well as legal action by those who are the recipient of these actions.

While the School does not generally monitor or limit content of information transmitted on the campus network, it reserves the right to access and review such information under certain conditions. These include: investigating performance deviations and system problems (with reasonable cause), determining if an individual is in violation of this policy, or, as may be necessary, to ensure that St. Peter Claver is not subject to claims of institutional misconduct.

Access to files on School owned equipment or information will only be approved by specific personnel when there is a valid reason to access those files. Authority to access user files can only come from the Pastor, Principal or Director of Technology in conjunction with the General Counsel. External law enforcement agencies and Public Safety may request access to files through valid subpoenas and other legally binding requests. All such requests must be approved by the General Counsel. Information obtained in this manner can be admissible in legal proceedings or in a School hearing.

For more information on privacy issues, see the Guidelines for Safeguarding Information. See also the Checklist for Protecting Information.

3.51 Privacy in Email

While every effort is made to insure the privacy of St. Peter Claver School email users, this may not always be possible. In addition, since employees are granted use of electronic information systems and network services to conduct School business, there may be instances when the School, based on approval from authorized officers, reserves and retains the right to access and inspect stored information without the consent of the user. Please see St. Peter Claver's Electronic Mail Policy for further details.

3.6 User Compliance

When you use School computing services, and accept any School issued computing accounts, you agree to comply with this and all other computing related policies. You have the responsibility to keep up-to-date on changes in the computing environment, as published, using School electronic and print publication mechanisms, and to adapt to those changes as necessary.