In the community college where I work as Public Information Officer, I’m by default responsible for the website. After the task of webmaster was added to my job description, a collective grievance was filed, which concluded that the Public Information Officer is not responsible for maintaining the site. I’m working on it anyway, out of embarrassment at how bad it is.
I thought the college didn’t have a web policy. It turns out that it does; the policy just isn’t posted on the website. I found it in the college catalog as the Student Computer Use Policy. This is one of the results of trying to develop and maintain a website without a webmaster.
Since the policy isn’t accessible on the website, except through a manual search of the table of contents or the index of the course catalog, I’m reproducing it below. If you’d like to skip this and go directly to my response to the policy, click here.
Student Computer Use Policy
Internet Policy
Student, faculty, and staff Internet access is provided for educational and work-related purposes only. Violations of Internet use include, but are not limited to, the following:
Logging onto chat rooms and/or participating in online chat; exceptions are educational and/or classroom-mandated chat rooms;
Visiting pornographic, racist, or hate sites and/or downloading and viewing pornographic pictures;
Sending harassing, intimidating, racist, hate and/or threatening messages; and unauthorized downloading and installation of programs.
Policy Violations
Conduct which is considered violation of campus and district policy with respect to computing facilities includes, but is not limited to, the following:
Sending racist, hate, harassing, intimidating and/or threatening messages through electronic mail or other means;
Downloading, storing or displaying obscene or pornographic materials;
Using computing facilities in a manner that violates copyrights, patent protections or license agreements, including using pirated or unlicensed software;
Installing personal software and downloading software from the Internet onto desktop computers or network servers in any instructional lab;
Attempting to circumvent data protection schemes, uncover security loopholes, or gain unauthorized access to any information or files;
Sending mass advertisements, solicitations or political mass mailings as defined by the Fair Political Practice Commission;
Using computing facilities for commercial or personal financial gain (including, but not limited to, online gambling and online auctions);
Taking computer hardware or software from district or college facilities for any purpose without prior written approval; and
Using computing facilities in a manner that violates existing state and federal law or district rules and regulations.
Consequences of Policy Violations
Misuse of computing facilities may result in the loss of computing privileges. Additionally, misuse may require financial restitution to the college for funds expended and could result in disciplinary, civil, or criminal action.
Users may be held accountable for their conduct. Violations of these policies will be enforced. Disciplinary review includes the full range of sanctions, up to and including, but not limited to student expulsion, and /or legal action. Misuse can also be prosecuted as a criminal offense under applicable statutes, which identifies certain crimes associated with the use of computer systems.
Infractions such as harassment, or repeated minor infractions as described in, but not limited to, the Computer Use Policy may result in the temporary loss of access privileges, notification to the Vice President of Student Services.
More serious infractions, such as unauthorized use, attempts to steal passwords or data, unauthorized use or copying of licensed software, violations of college policies, or repeated violations of minor infractions may result in the permanent loss of access privileges. In all cases, the offenders will be notified of the infraction and the case will be referred to the Vice President of Student Services for disciplinary action in accordance with the official disciplinary procedures.
Procedures for Policy Violations
Student Users
First infraction, a verbal warning from the instructor of record, if present, otherwise from the lab administrator with notice to the instructor of record;
Second infraction, the user’s access to his or her account should be restricted to student’s assigned lab and limited to lab hours only. A verbal report and/or e-mail should be made to appropriate division dean and instructor followed by a meeting between the user and the division dean;
Third infraction, the temporary disabling of the user account followed by a meeting with the Vice President of Student Services explaining the termination of their login account and disciplinary action.
RESPONSE: Assessment of the Existing Policy
The Student Computer Use Policy, after stating that “Internet access is provided for educational and work-related purposes only,” consists of a somewhat repetitive list of policy violations. This is followed by a section, nearly equal in length, that discusses consequences to the student if s/he violates the policy.
The policy covers more issues than it at first appears, because some policy violations are too briefly explained. For example, “Using computing facilities in a manner that violates copyrights, patent protections or license agreements” assumes that the reader knows what these agreements are.
The policy could also benefit from expansion of some entries with a more up-to-date version. The prohibition against “logging onto chat rooms and/or participating in online chat” could be updated to include logging onto social networking or commercial sites not related to the college, downloading music or videos, playing online games.
As stated in the catalog, the policy apparently applies only to students. It should clearly apply to college employees, as well.
When management of the website was turned over to the college with installation of a CMS four years ago (previously, the four college sites were managed by a District webmaster using Dreamweaver), it was understood that the college Technology Committee and/or the District Board of Governors would develop a policy regarding posting on the site. This was never done, so essentially I can post anything anywhere on the site as long as it doesn’t break the law, and faculty and staff can similarly post anything on their own pages.
Elements to be Included in an Expanded Policy
Contact Information: There should be a statement about whom to contact about website issues, but no one is officially responsible for the site. Contact information for college departments and academic divisions (but not departments) is available from the home page.
Sections that should be added include:
- A statement on the importance and use of email (faculty, in particular, tend not to check their college email)
- A privacy statement concerning information collected by the site (IT network coordinator will have to be consulted on this) and how it may be used
- A policy concerning what is and is not appropriate to post on web pages
- A statement about plagiarism (this has been an issue in at least one instance)
- Copyright policy, re ownership of materials posted on the website and college’s right to use posted information
- A policy concerning assistive technology and the website
- Disclaimers that the college is not responsible for
- the content on individual faculty members’ sites
- content of social networking and other sites linked to the college site
- plagiarism or copyright violation in postings by individuals
- lack of completeness or currency of information on the site
The Controversy about Social Media
A recent proposal that a student Facebook page be developed and linked to the college website met with extreme skepticism by the administration, resulting in an informal survey of local community colleges regarding their social media policies. Although many of the colleges incorporate social media links into their websites, the survey indicated that the social media pages are usually managed by someone in the college marketing department. It was pointed out, however, that students are free to develop their own Facebook page.
The tentative resolution of this problem was to suggest that student government develop a page, and that a link to the college’s website will include a disclaimer that the college is not responsible for content. This is the first time in my experience at the college that any website disclaimer has been considered.
Use by the College of Information & Content Supplied to the Website
Few, if any, instructors in our college publish books, so the issue of use has not arisen in this context. Some, particularly online instructors, develop original content, but this is developed in the context of their job, so legally it is the property of the college. Course syllabi are an interesting gray area, because they are developed in the context of the job but the instructor would likely use the same or similar syllabi if s/he went to another college. Full-time instructors now willingly share their syllabi with new part timers, but what would be their response if the college gave these to the new instructors?
The college needs a policy for ambiguous cases, like the above. Another such case would be if an instructor posted on the web a photo or other artwork created prior to being hired at the college, and the college wanted to use it in a promotional piece. Does it now belong to the college because it is on the college website?
What Work Needs to be Done in Order to Develop the Policy, and Who Should Be in Charge?
Currently, California colleges are facing major financial and staff cutbacks, which means that staff are stressed and there will be even fewer resources for developing and enforcing a policy. In this context, an extremely detailed policy that includes a lot of “don’ts” would not be appropriate. On the other hand, we are putting ourselves at risk by having a policy that is incomplete and only for students.
A number of the community college sites I visited for this report had no posted policy, or a very limited policy. Some colleges (e.g., Berry College) and especially universities had very detailed policies that would probably not be appropriate for us at this stage. I would recommend to the college Technology Committee that we use an established policy as a template (one good candidate is Los Angeles City College) for drafting a preliminary policy for review by the District’s legal counsel. The District is the more appropriate entity to develop this policy, but unfortunately, if the wheel isn’t squeaking, the person in charge is whoever expresses interest.
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