Policy
I.Technology Advisory Committee
Technology Advisory Committee (TAC) for COM-FSM exists and is charged with preparing policy, providing advice to the President, and operating in the area of technology (larger than just computers). In matters of technology, the Technical Advisory Committee must be consulted and allowed to provide advice to the President regardless of whether other committees might also be involved.
The Technical Advisory Committee has major input into any decision regarding technology purchases, use and repair of technology equipment, and training in technology areas.
TAC carries the following primary responsibilities:
- Operation of computers purchases relative to technology obsolescence and accompanying technology fee
- Developing a plan for technology throughout the COM-FSM system
- Planning and implementing training programs for the staff and students to encourage full usage of new technology
- Supporting the maintenance of the equipment
- Coordinating procurement of needed supplies
- Steering College purchasers away from vendors who have proven unreliable in the past
- Performing other related task as may arise from time to time
The Technology Advisory Committee is to be composed of the following members:
- Vice President
- Director of Information Technology, acting as chair
- Director of Researc and Planning
Administration
Faculty
Students
Classified Staff
Learning Resource Center
IT Department
Academic Business Division
State Campuses
II. Intellectual Property
Within the framework of this Technology Policy, intellectual property includes:
- Computer software purchased or acquired for use by COM-FSM
- Written works in any form that are accessed or manipulated using technolgy-based tools including but not limited to reports or publications and web pages
- Other content including but not limited to digital images (original, scanned or digitized reproductions) audio, and video.
III. Computer Software
No software may be installed, copied, or used on College resources except as permitted by the terms of the license provided by the publisher of the software. Software subject to licensing must be properly licensed and all license provisions (installation, use, copying, number of concurrent users, etc.) must be strictly adhered to.
Software available for use on computers at the College of Micronesia-FSM is protected by international copyright laws. Educational institutions are not exempt from the laws covering copyrights. The College will not engage in the illegal duplication of software. All original disks or license certificates are available for copyright and licensing verification.
All software provided by the College of Micronesia-FSM will be properly purchased, including site licenses as applicable. Illegal copies of software may not be used on the College's computers. Failure to comply with the usage restrictions contained in a software license or other agreement can result in personal liability and may result in disciplinary action.
Software is protected by license agreement between the purchaser and the software author or owner. All software provided by the College for use by faculty, staff, and students must be used in strict compliance with the license or other agreement that specifies terms and conditions of its use.
The College of Micronesia-FSM has the responsibility to uphold all copyrights, laws governing access and use of information, and rules of organizations supplying information resources to members of the community (e.g., acceptable use policies for use of Internet).
IV. Computing Resources
The computing resources of the College of Micronesia-FSM are intended to support the academic programs of the College. Anyone pursuing academic work may use the facilities and equipment. Use is limited to curriculum, academic, and College related work.
College computing resources may not:
- Be used for commercial purposes including advertising of commercial products or services, direct or indirect profit or gain
- Be used in any way which will violate international copyright statutes or regulations.
Computing resources are to be considered as shared, finite resources provided by the institution to promote scholarship and learning for all students, staff, and faculty. Monopolizing this shared resource through deliberate action or inaction is strongly discouraged.
School related work, such as work for classes, committees, and school projects, has first priority:
- If work is being done that is not school related, another user can ask the person doing the non-school related work to relinquish the computer
- If work is being done that is school related, another user cannot ask the person doing the school related work to relinquish the computer.
The faculty computers are meant to be used by faculty and their designated work study students only.
Attempts to circumvent, defeat, or subvert system or network security measures, or gain access to areas or systems the user is not authorized to access are prohibited.
The use of College computing resources, including Internet access provided by the college, to probe other systems with intent to gain access for which the user is not authorized access is prohibited.
In keeping with the philosophy of the College of Micronesia-FSM and the Library Bill of Rights, the LRC is seen as a resource open to all. Combined with this, the first concern of the COM-FSM LRC is to support the curriculum and the staff and students of the College.
Use of computer labs located in the Learning Resources Center is a privilege open to all registered students and those who present a valid library card. However to protect and monitor use of the LRC resources it is necessary to ensure that all users have an understanding of proper computer use and etiquette.
There are two different but complementary levels of computer use. Students may elect to use only the general application computers or they might opt to use the Reference computers.
Research must be of an academic nature directly connected to an assigned project or connected to a student's academic future (i.e. access to an institution of further education). Any other use is prohibited. The LRC reserves the right to make the determination of whether or not an observed or requested usage is educational.
To guarantee that users are knowledgeable in the operation of the computers and peripherals held in the LRC, the LRC staff conducts training sessions (either scheduled or on demand) to prospective users of the facilities. In order to use the computer resources, users must show a basic competency in computer usage. This is accomplished through either the use of a testing instrument (a competency test) or successful completion of the first three weeks of a computer course offered by the college.
Students may elect to write the competency test without being enrolled in a computer class or taking the training sessions. However, if they are not successful in passing the test, they must enroll in the training sessions in order to rewrite the test.
E-mail access is not available through the LRC Internet computers
The computer laboratory will be used for instructional purposes during school hours.
The computer lab will be used for training purposes sanctioned by the College and approved by the Vice President for Instructional and Academic Affairs.
All training in the business computer laboratory must be passed through the Business Department Chair and be approved by the Vice President for Instructional and Academic Affairs.
All the supplies, materials for the lab, will be purchased by the student fees collected at the time of registration.
No equipment, computer, or furniture may be removed from the business computer laboratory without the prior permission of the Vice President for Instructional and Academic Affairs.
Use of computer access accounts are subject to state and/or federal laws regarding the use of computing equipment and/or government resources and appropriate network protocols.
The institution reserves the right to monitor and record the usage on campus networks and equipment. The institution has the right to use information gained in this way in disciplinary or criminal proceedings.
Running network servers of any kind without being logged in to the system while they are executing is prohibited unless arrangements are made in advance. This includes gopher servers, web servers, IRC servers, or any other server which allows people other than yourself to access your account or computing resources.
Privately owned computers may be attached to campus network with the following stipulations:
- The computer owner is responsible for the behavior of users of that machine and for all network traffic to and from the machine.
- They may not be used to provide network access to individuals who would not have had access through official institutional systems
- They may not be used as a router or gateway to other networks or to non-institutional affiliated systems
- Should the institution have reason to believe that a privately owned system is using the institution's network inappropriately, network traffic to and from that system will be monitored and, if justified, the system will be disconnected and action taken with the appropriate authorities.
V. Administrative Data
All persons who handle confidential records shall be instructed concerning the confidential nature of such information and their responsibilities regarding it as described in the United States Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, 1974, Micronesia Board and Education Policy, 1977. No one outside the faculty or administrative staff of COM-FSM, except as specified by law, may have access to the records of a student's offenses against the College's regulations without the express permission of the student in writing.
When disseminating information, ensure that the information is sent to only the intended recipients. Be especially careful when releasing information by telephone, fax, or e-mail. When transmitting information over the telephone or fax machine, be certain of the identity of the recipient. When sending information via e-mail, be mindful that e-mail information is particularly easy to forward to third parties.
Administrators, faculty, and staff are to access only that data and those transactions that are required to conduct their officially assigned duties. Information can only be released according to the guidelines within each unit and in accordance with existing College policies on the release of information.
Controls over information systems should provide the ability to trace violations of security to individuals who may be held responsible.
Employees who attempt unauthorized access to administrative computers are subject to disciplinary measures as per College policies.
Supervisors have the the following responsibilities:
- Periodic review of access granted to their staff
- Upon the conclusion of the work day that staff have properly secured administrative information
- Developing and implementing procedures for maintaining access security, including education of their constituency on these procedures
Any person authorized access to any information:
- is not to make or permit unauthorized use of any information.
- should ensure the identity of the information recipient before discussing information pertinent to the individual's record.
- may not use non-public institutional information for personal or financial gain, or malicious purposes
- may not obstruct its use for legitimate institutional need.
The improper access to or unauthorized disclosure of confidential information is a violation of College policies may be a violation of state, federal, or U.S. laws that pertain to the College.
Computer screens must be oriented to prevent unauthorized people from reading sensitive information.
Printed output containing confidential or sensitive information must be treated with the same care as confidential data files.
Floppy disks and cartridges with sensitive or confidential information must be stored in a secure area or in a locked file cabinet or desk.
Storage of non-electronic forms of administrative information must safeguard against the information's unauthorized viewing as well as loss due to accidents or acts of nature.
Paper and microfiche copies of sensitive and confidential information must be disposed of either by burning or by shredding to ensure the security of the information.
Properly discard computer disks (hard disks and floppy) containing administrative, confidential, or sensitive information. Procedures for properly erasing computer disks can be obtained from the College technical services unit.
Data integrity will be ensured through the following of the proper maintenance procedures on databases and through timely upgrades of the database software to current releases.
A naming standard must be in effect to distinguish between test jobs and production jobs, test data sets and production data sets. New procedures should be run in test data sets and off-line data sets.
Employees are charged with safeguarding the integrity, accuracy, and confidentiality of information.
Data will be secured against loss by regular backing up of the data onto removable media.
Data centers may have a fireproof and weatherproof vault for critical electronic data storage such as backup media (tapes, removable disks).
VI. Internet
Access to the global Internet provided by the College of Micronesia-FSM is considered part of the larger framework of computing resources that are provided to support the academic programs of the College, and is subject to the guidelines established for those resources.
Reselling institutional access to the Internet is prohibited.
Where connectivity to the Internet is accomplished by dial-up networking to an external Internet Service Provider (e.g. FSM Telecommunications), efforts should be made to separate work-related and personal Internet and e-mail usage. All College paid accounts should be used only for work-related activities. Staff who wish to communicate via e-mail or use the Internet for personal business should establish a separate, personal account with an Internet Service Provider.
Official College accounts purchased from external Internet service providers should not use personal names for the login, e-mail address, or account holder.
Public access to College computers and networks may be available from the Internet/World Wide Web or from within specially designated public facilities, such as the College library.
The primary use of the Internet is for educational and research purposes only.
- Do not access material that may offend others.
- Do not download any executable software onto the computer.
- Do not sign onto Internet sites under false names.
- Do not print out web pages you do not need, or multiple copies of the same web page.
- Do not access pornographic or racially derogatory material.
- The playing of online and web-based games is not permitted.
All pages must use the correct nomenclature for College of Micronesia-FSM.
Pages located on College servers may not be used to promote commercial activity, personal business, religious groups, or to promote personal financial gain; except as may be permitted by other College policy or regulation.
College pages should not contain confidential university information or confidential student information unless adequate security measures are in place to restrict access to authorized persons.
Web pages must observe international copyright laws and acceptable practices related to those laws.
The occurrence of plagiarism on web pages is subject to the same sanctions as apply to plagiarism in any other media (See COM-FSM's policy on Academic Honesty). Clip art images provided with licensed software may be used if permitted in the license agreement for such software. You may not place any pictures or videos of people on a Web page without the expressed permission of the people in the picture or video. Every person has a right to privacy which includes the right to restrict the use of his/her own image. In addition, the picture or video may be protected by copyright.
Links that lead directly to materials with pornographic or racially derogatory material are not permitted on College web servers.
Institutional Web pages are pages created by any College division. Their content must be consistent with and in support of the College mission statement. Each division head is responsible for assuring that the organization's web pages meet all the College policies, procedures and guidelines. The task of assuring that web pages prepared by the division comply with College policies, procedures, and guidelines can be delegated by the division head to a member of the division with the necessary technical skills.
All institutional pages other than "working" pages (i.e. class notes, syllabi, research projects, etc.) or pages designed specifically to provide a source of printed documents must conform to the following design and content standards in addition to the standards listed above:
The appearance of all pages should be based on a current web page template, available on the COM-FSM web site. Where use of a template is not appropriate, pages should:
contain the name of the College of Micronesia-FSM (completely spelled out) incorporate the official university colors of blue and white into their design contain a link back to the College home page. A signature block containing the following information is also recommended:
The date of the last revision to the page The name of the unit responsible for the page An e-mail link to the person responsible for the page A link back to the organization's home page (if any). Organizational pages must also contain an e-mail address for the organization
If an organizational page requires graphics or audio to convey the meaning of the page, an alternative "text-only" page must be made available for people who may not be able to view the graphics or hear the audio.
Each organization creating pages is responsible for maintaining those pages in a timely manner with the latest information.
Organizations creating pages should provide links, if necessary, to pages containing authoritative information outside their areas of responsibility (i.e. policies, admissions, College mission and history, etc.) rather than creating the pages themselves. This is to ensure that the most up-to-date and accurate information is being provided.
Careful attention to spelling, grammar, punctuation and word use is required.
All official College pages must be cleared through the designated Public Information Officer.
Links to commercial sites should be done only where the link serves an institutional purpose. On pages containing such links, the following disclaimer must also appear:
"The College of Micronesia-FSM does not endorse the following commercial provider or its products."
The College supports the concept of faculty, staff, and student personal web pages. Faculty and staff personal web pages should provide information relevant to the individual's role at the University.
The College reserves the right to restrict the quantity and availability of College computing and network resources for the purpose of creating, maintaining, and viewing unofficial web pages and files.
All pages must contain the name and e-mail address of the page owner. These may be incorporated as meta-content if appropriate.
The College assumes no responsibility for the content of any unofficial web page or file. All personal web pages must include the following disclaimer:
"This page does not reflect an official position of the College of Micronesia-FSM."
College reserves the right to remove, without notice, any web page or file (official or unofficial) from any computer which is owned and operated by the College or its affiliated units which does not comply with College information resource policies and procedures.
Use of the College of Micronesia-FSM's trademarks, official logos, or other intellectual property and creative works is governed by College intellectual property and creative works policies.
Personal web pages may not contain the College logo or other symbols of the College unless they pertain specifically to a College function.
Personal web pages must not give the impression that they are representing opinions or making statements on behalf of the College or any unit of the College unless appropriately authorized (explicitly or implicitly) to do so.
Unauthorized presentation of any web page or file as an Official College Web Page or Official College File or any unauthorized or illegal use of College computers and networks is prohibited.
E-Mail is a computing resource provided by the College of Micronesia-FSM, and is therefore subject to use consistent with the guidelines for those resources.
E-mail is a form of communication; laws and guidelines of etiquette that apply to other forms of communication apply equally to e-mail. Use of e-mail to harass or intimidate another person, or any other illegal or unlawful purpose is prohibited. Use of e-mail to send chain letters or for "pyramid schemes" is also discouraged.
College electronic mail services may be used for incidental personal purposes provided such use does not interfere with College operation of information technologies including electronic mail services, burden the College with incremental costs, or interfere with the user's employment or other obligations to the College.
Only messages relating to College activities should be sent to the system wide mailing lists. Such mailing lists are for notification of College events, communication of official College messages, and notification of bulletin board discussions. System-provided mailing lists shall not be used for "classified ads" (e.g., "For Sale," "For Lease," etc.) or "free items" (e.g., free kittens, free books, etc.). Users shall not use the system-provided mailing lists for commercial or partisan political purposes.
The College of Micronesia-FSM encourages the responsible use of electronic mail and respects the privacy of users. The College does not wish to inspect or monitor electronic mail routinely or to be the arbiter of its contents. Nonetheless, electronic mail and data stored on the College's network of computers may be accessed by the College for the following purposes:
- troubleshooting hardware and software problems.
- preventing unauthorized access and system misuse,
- retrieving business related information,
- investigating reports of violation of College policy or local, state or federal law,
- complying with legal requests for information,
- rerouting or disposing of undeliverable mail.
The system administrator will need approval from the Vice President for Instructional and Academic Affairs or the appropriate designee to access specific mail and data for these purposes. The extent of the access will be limited to what is reasonably necessary to acquire the information.
Realize that College policy and secure passwords provide good but not complete assurance of the privacy of your e-mail messages. Receivers of electronic mail documents should check with the purported sender if there is any doubt about the identity of the sender or the authenticity of the contents, as they would with print documents. When the confidentiality of a message is of the utmost importance, only a person-to-person conversation may be sufficiently secure.
Electronic mail may constitute a public record and, like other documents, be subject to disclosure as a result of litigation. The College evaluates all requests for information prior to such disclosure. Users of electronic mail services should be aware that even though the sender and recipient have discarded their copies of an electronic mail message, there may be back-up copies of such electronic mail that can be retrieved.
