JCC Computer Use Policy
Access to College Computing Facilities and Accounts: Registered students of Jamestown Community College have the privilege to access computing resources in designated open labs. Access to departmental or discipline-related labs such as CAD, Art, Business, Humanities, and Continuing Education, is dependent on enrollment in designated courses or permission of instructor.
Full-time students enrolled in credit-bearing courses pay a mandatory computer resources fee each semester. Part-time students in credit-bearing courses must pay the same fee before access to computing facilities is granted. Students enrolled in continuing education classes pay a lab fee as a part of course registrations.
Accounts are created for students in credit-bearing courses to access general software packages and services. However, students must apply for special services such as CAD/CAM unless they are enrolled in courses that require use of such packages. In such cases, accounts with these special services are automatically set up for them.
Questions about student accounts should be addressed to the Instructional Computing Staff in any of the Open Lab facilities or in the Library Building on the Jamestown campus.
Alumni who have a valid gold card are eligible to use local computing resources in Open Labs. Alumni must show the gold card to lab staff in order to get an account. Alumni guests’ accounts do not include access to Internet services.
Software & File Ownership: All software and files on Jamestown Community College’s computer systems are the property of the College. The College reserves the right to inspect/delete/print files from all software and accounts. In addition, the College reserves the right to revoke computing privileges to any user. Users shall receive notification prior to any action taken unless extenuating circumstances prevent it.
Copying Software: Copying software from any JCC computer system is illegal. Software is protected by the Federal Copyright Law as printed material and violation can result in criminal charges and college disciplinary action.
Network Code of Conduct: JCC’s computing facilities are networked to provide for the most efficient use of limited resources.
Food and Drink: Food and drink are not allowed in computing facilities. Anyone found with food or drink will be asked to dispose of it or leave.
Noise: Noise and loud talking are to be kept to a minimum in order to avoid disturbing others. Disruptive individuals will be asked to leave the lab area.
Ethical Standards: The College has developed a “Policy Statement on Ethical Standards in the Use of Computing Systems at Jamestown Community College.” That statement is part of the Student Constitution. Portions are excerpted here:
“Computing systems exist for the constructive manipulation of information. Students, faculty and staff should be guided by prevailing principles used to govern other processes and academic environments at Jamestown Community College. The conduct of students, faculty and staff should take into account issues such as courtesy and good taste as well as those of pure legality.
COPYRIGHT VIOLATIONS: The following activities are contrary to existing U.S. copying legislation:
- Unauthorized duplication of copyrighted material;
- Distribution of illegally copied material;
- Unauthorized alteration of copyrighted material;
COMPUTERS and COMPUTER NETWORKS: The following activities constitute a breach of academic ethics:
- Unauthorized access to and/or modification of files, programs, and/or system software are prohibited;
- Unauthorized use of passwords and accounts to obtain access to information networks is prohibited;
- Deliberate attempts to sabotage the normal operation of systems are prohibited.
Violations of these policies will result in disciplinary action as defined in the Student Conduct Code or the appropriate faculty or staff contract. If the violation is contrary to existing laws, the violator may be liable for prosecution under applicable statutes.”
Rules & Regulations for Open Lab Facilities
Purpose of Open Labs: The primary purpose of Jamestown Community College’s Open Computing Lab facilities is for completion of class assignments requiring the use of college-owned software and hardware. Non-academic uses of college-owned hardware, software and network band-width will be accommodated whenever possible in the Open Lab facilities. The lab technicians have the right to limit use of hardware for non-academic purposes.
Lab Hours: Operating hours for Open Lab facilities will be posted. The Instructional Computing staff reserves the right to close the facilities with little or no notice for repair purposes. Hours vary during vacation periods, summer sessions, and during mid-term recesses and will be posted.
Internet Access: The Instructional Computing staff will make every effort to provide Internet access to users searching academic resources in the Open Lab facilities. Recreational use of the facilities may be limited during peak usage times.
Additional terminals are provided in the Hultquist Library on the Jamestown campus for students who wish to access Internet services during regular library hours.
PC Games: PC games are generally not allowed in the Open Computing Lab facilities.
Personal Equipment and Software: Users are not allowed to connect personal laptops into the network without special permission of the Instructional Computing Staff. Personal software may not be loaded onto any networked computers in the Open Labs. In addition Internet files may not be downloaded onto the system hard drives.
Reserving Equipment: All equipment in the Open Labs is available on a first-come, first-serve basis. No reservations will be taken. If all equipment is in use, a waiting list will be started and users performing non-academic functions will be asked to vacate the equipment for users waiting to do academic assignments.
Saving Work: No one is allowed to store personal work and/or software on the hard disk drives in the Open Labs. All users should have a personal data disk for saving their work. Any files or software found on the hard drives will be deleted. The Instructional Computing staff is not responsible in anyway for unsaved data lost due to power failure, computer failure, or any other unplanned or unavoidable event or emergency.
Virus Protections: Instructional Computing staff reserves the right to refuses entry into an open lab to any individual who has an unremovable virus on his/her disk. In addition, Instructional Computing staff reserves the right to remove any individual who refuses to scan his/her disk.
Printing: There are a limited number of printers available in the Open Labs. To avoid printing delays and backups, please print only necessary files. In order to avoid backups at closing time, users will be notified to begin print jobs at least 15 minutes prior to closing.
E-mail and Computer Use Policy
Jamestown Community College has created this policy, to maximize the benefits of its computer resources and minimize potential liability. All computer users are obligated to use these resources responsibly, professionally, ethically, and lawfully.
You are given access to our computer network to assist you in performing your job or completing your academic tasks. You should not have an expectation of privacy in anything you create, store, send, or receive on the computer system. You must not present false identification or misleading information to gain access to computing resources or use computing resources for which you are not authorized. The computer system belongs to Jamestown Community College and should be used for Jamestown Community College business or academic purposes. The system may not be used for personal business. Without prior notice, the college may review any material created, stored, sent, or received on its network or through the Internet or any other computer network.
Full-time students enrolled in credit-bearing courses pay a mandatory computer resources fee each semester. Part-time students in credit-bearing courses must pay the same fee before access to computing facilities is granted. Students enrolled in continuing education classes pay a lab fee as part of course registrations.
Internal e-mail will be used for college related business only. Non-college related items such as the sale of personal items, discussion of non-college related issues, and the promotion of non-college events will be posted on the bulletin board section of Outlook only.
Use of computer resources for any of these activities is strictly prohibited:
- Sending, receiving, downloading, displaying, printing, or otherwise disseminating material that is sexually explicit, profane, obscene, harassing, fraudulent, racially offensive, defamatory, or otherwise unlawful.
- Disseminating or storing commercial or personal advertisements, solicitations, promotions, destructive programs (that is, viruses or self-replicating code) or political information. (See addendum)
- Wasting computer resources by, among other things, sending mass mailings or chain letters, spending excessive amounts of time on the Internet, playing games, engaging in online chat groups, printing multiple copies of documents, printing excessively long Internet documents or otherwise creating unnecessary network traffic.
If you become aware of someone using computer resources for any of these activities, you are obligated to report the incident immediately to the Director of Instructional Computing and Software Services or the Director of Hardware/Network Services.
Violations of this policy will be taken seriously and may result in disciplinary action, including suspension of privileges, possible employment termination or college expulsion, and civil and criminal liability.
Addendum
The computing facilities of Jamestown Community College and its supporting data network may not be used:
- to interfere with the privacy of others
- for direct financial gain (e.g., commercial consulting or manuscript preparation for hire)
- for the conduct of private business affairs
- in conjunction with programs (such as copying the password file, password cracking programs or Satan) that are designed to probe, describe, or to defeat computer security features of computer systems located at the College or elsewhere, or the use of ordinary tools (e.g., ping or finger) in a manner that may probe or describe network topology or computer security features without the expressed written consent of the Director of Hardware & Network Services.
- to effectuate, or to attempt to effectuate access to any system for which the person is not an authorized user
- to decrypt, or to attempt to decrypt scrambled files (e.g., the password file) that are not owned by the user
- to use “sniffing” or similar programs so as to gain access to communications or data to which the user is not a party in a manner that degrades system or network performance (e.g., transmission of software containing a virus, cancelbot, trojan horse, worm or other harmful component or running a program that has no purpose)
- to alter systems configuration files (e.g., autoexec.bat or config.sys)
- to remove college-owned software
- to remove or alter files owned by another user
- to upload, post, publish, transmit, or reproduce in any way, information, software or other material which is protected by copyright or other proprietary right.
- to post or transmit any unlawful or unsolicited message that is threatening, abusive, libelous, obscene, or pornographic
- to transmit any unlawful message to anyone that is threatening, abusive, libelous, obscene or pornographic, whether in text, audio, or graphic form, and regardless of whether or not the message was solicited
- to send unsolicited messages (such as chain letters or electronic junk mail) that may be perceived as harassing, annoying, or obscene
- to conduct business for political purposes, to interfere with or intercept the electronic communications of another user
- to obscure or to attempt to obscure the identity and location of a remote connection
- to physically abuse or misuse College computing equipment
- to engage in activities prohibited by local, state, or federal law