Student Email Acceptable Use Policy
Rockingham Community College (RCC) uses student email as an official means to effectively and efficiently communicate between students, faculty and staff. The primary purpose of student email is to meet the academic, student life, administrative, and business needs of the College.
While the College will continue to communicate through printed publications and written correspondence, it is expected that the College will increasingly use student email as an official means of communication with RCC students.
Prohibited Conduct
Student email may not be used in the following ways:
- Unlawful activities
- Commercial purposes
- Personal financial gain
- False identity in email communications
- Misrepresentation of RCC
- Distribution of electronic chain letters or unsolicited mass communications
- Disruption, corruption or obstruction of electronic communications
Access Restriction
Access to and use of student email is considered a privilege accorded at the discretion of RCC. The College maintains the right to immediately withdraw the access and use of student email when there is reason to believe that violations of law or College policies have occurred. In such cases, the alleged violation will be referred to the Vice President for Student Development for further investigation and adjudication under the Code of Student Conduct. The range of sanctions for unacceptable use of student email includes expulsion from the College.
Privacy
The general right of privacy should be extended to the extent possible in the electronic environment. RCC and all electronic users should treat electronically stored information in individuals’ files as confidential and private.
There is an acknowledged trade-off between the right of privacy of a user and the need of system administrators to gather necessary information to ensure the continued functioning of these resources. In the normal course of system administration, system administrators may have to examine files to gather sufficient information to diagnose and correct problems with system software or hardware. Whenever possible, prior notification will be provided.
Users of student email are strictly prohibited from accessing files and information other than their own. The College reserves the right to access its computer and network systems, including current and archival files of user accounts when there is reasonable suspicion that unacceptable use has occurred.
Access
By accessing RCC’s email, you agree to the terms of this policy and that RCC, its staff, and officers shall not be liable for any damages or costs of any type arising out of or in any way connected with your use of this service.
Information Technology Acceptable Use Policy
Access to resources on campus, including the use of Rockingham Community College (RCC) equipment, the campus network, and the Internet, is provided to support the research, educational, and administrative purposes of RCC. All who use these services will do so responsibly, respecting the rights of other users, the integrity of the physical facilities, and all applicable laws and regulations. The following guidelines describe the college’s expectations and the users’ responsibilities regarding acceptable use of college electronic resources:
Access to the campus network and Internet is a privilege and those granted privileges are responsible for using these resources in an ethical and lawful manner. The RCC campus network and college-owned software, resources, and equipment are not to be used for commercial purposes. Computer software is protected by federal copyright law and by legal binding agreements. Users are responsible for any unauthorized software used on the system. Creation and/or transmission of threatening, racist, sexist, obscene, offensive, annoying, or harassing language and/or material are prohibited. Display and viewing of the aforementioned language and/or material via RCC resources are permitted only as they pertain to academic objectives.
Intentional access to the College’s network or resources for the purposes of damaging or altering systems or information is prohibited and unlawful. This includes, but is not limited to, the introduction of viruses or harmful files, hacking, and other methods of vandalism. Users of the unsecured RCC wireless network are responsible for ensuring they have the appropriate compliant wireless card and are running up-to-date antivirus and antispyware software on their wireless devices. The level of security of transactions, hard drive files, and general web surfing will depend on the level of security precautions users have taken with their computers. Users must protect all RCC-owned or authorized data on both personal and RCC-owned portable computing devices, removable storage components, and removable computer media from unauthorized access.
RCC will block all known high risk websites that pose a threat of introducing viruses, harmful files, and other methods of vandalism into the campus network. If, at any time access to a site needed for research, educational, or administrative purposes is found to be blocked, the Director of Technology Support Services should be notified. Every effort will be made to accommodate your needs while protecting the integrity of the RCC network.
Anyone violating these guidelines may immediately be suspended from all computing resource privileges. Upon proof of such violations, RCC retains the right to permanently deny all future computing privileges and services. Violators will be subject to disciplinary actions, including suspension of student status or termination of employment.
RCC Electronic Signature Policy
Rockingham Community College (RCC) recognizes an electronic signature as a valid signature from faculty, staff, and students when the communication occurs through a college-issued account. The RCC Electronic Signature Policy is established to confirm and bind the identity of an individual to a process requiring his or her signature. This policy reflects the legal intent of the individual that the electronic signature has the same authority as his or her written signature. (Approved by RCC Board of Trustees May 10, 2011)
RCC Electronic Signature Procedures
Rockingham Community College (RCC) recognizes an electronic signature as a valid signature from faculty, staff, and students if the communication occurs through a college-issued account such as email, Moodle, Datatel or Self-Service. An electronic signature is defined as any electronic process signifying an approval to terms and/or ensuring the integrity of the document presented in electronic format. Electronic signatures from accounts not issued by the college will not be accepted.
Students may use electronic signatures to register, check financial aid awards, pay student bills, obtain unofficial transcripts, log into campus computers, complete forms, submit class work, take tests, and other student related functions. Faculty and staff may use electronic signatures for many work-related procedures such as submitting grades, viewing personal payroll data, viewing departmental budgets, logging into campus computers, accessing protected data through the administrative computing system, accessing course management systems, and accessing custom web applications provided by the college.
RCC recognizes faculty, staff, and student electronic signatures as their unique username and password assigned to them by the College. Users must change their passwords upon initial login to conform to the format required by each server. It is the responsibility and obligation of each individual to protect the confidentiality of their usernames and passwords. Once logged in, faculty, staff and students are responsible for any information entered, updated or removed. RCC will ensure that usernames and passwords or PINs are protected and kept confidential. Users are responsible for logging out of all systems and exercising the necessary precautions when using publicly accessible computers. Faculty, staff and students are also responsible for adhering to the requirements of the Acceptable Use Policy (located in the Student Handbook and the Faculty/Staff Handbook).
The Rockingham Community College Electronic Signature Policy is established to confirm and bind the identity of an individual to a process requiring his or her signature. This policy also reflects the legal intent of the individual that the electronic signature has the same authority as his or her written signature. By establishment of the Electronic Signature Policy, RCC is responsible for assuring electronically-signed record integrity, security, and accessibility to those who are entitled to such access by law, statute, or regulation. These records will be retained for any period mandated and in a form capable of being reproduced as needed.
This procedure is in addition to all applicable federal and state statutes, policies, guidelines, and standards.
Notice to Students Regarding Online Communities
Rockingham Community College recognizes that many students participate in online communities in positive ways to connect with and interact with others. At the same time, however, users should be aware of the potential down sides and dangers of such sites. While the College is not responsible for material published on social networking sites by our students, RCC would like to offer the following suggestions to help keep our students safe.
First, be aware that anything that you post online is public information available for anyone to see, read, or print. Your professors, your parents, your future employers and undergraduate and graduate school admissions officers may easily be able to log onto your site. Be conscious of the image you are creating for yourself.
Second, when using any online community confirm that the most private security setting is selected. Using all of the security tools and privacy settings on these sites effectively is to your advantage.
Third, avoid listing personal information such as address, phone numbers, and class schedules. Your “friends” will already know this information. Withholding personal contact information from public online community websites reduces your chances of being stalked, harassed or victimized.
Fourth, you should know that while online communities are hosted outside RCC servers, violations of College policy on outside websites (for example, using harassing language, reference to drug or substance abuse taking place on campus, or other violations of the Student Code of Conduct) are subject to investigation and sanction.
Fifth, and finally, participation in online communities while on campus utilizes RCC resources intended to support the research, educational, and administrative purposes of the College. At any time, you may be asked by a member of the faculty or staff to refrain from using College resources for personal entertainment in order to respect the rights of other users seeking to complete educational and administrative assignments.
Wireless Internet Access
Any use of Rockingham Community College’s network (wired or wireless) must be in accordance with the Acceptable Use Policy. RCC staff is not able to provide technical assistance for wireless access beyond that presented here.
Users are responsible for ensuring they have the appropriate compliant wireless card (802.11b or g) and are running up-to-date antivirus and antispyware software on their wireless device.
Depending on your wireless adapter, it may not be necessary to change any TCP/IP settings. If you need to set these manually, set them to obtain both the IP and DNS server addresses automatically.
Wireless access does not require you to login. While RCC does not guarantee specific rates of speed or against interruption of service, every attempt will be made to make wireless access available 24/7.
Printing is not available for wireless connections.
NOTE: The wireless network is not secure (i.e., it is not encrypted using WEP, WAP, etc.). The level of security of your transactions, files on your hard drive and general web surfing will depend on the level of security precautions you have taken with your computer.