Nashville State Community College
STANDARD: This document represents the Nashville State Community College’s (NSCC) policy for the acceptable use of computers and networks that are made available to faculty, staff, and students. The act of accessing your computer account represents your acceptance of the following policy (see TBR Policy 1:08:00:00).
PROCEDURES:
1. The computers, the Tennessee Information Infrastructure (TNII), and the Internet are available for use, at the discretion of NSCC, by all faculty, staff, and students affiliated with the College. NSCC reserves the right to deny access to any individual as it deems appropriate.
2. The purpose of providing access to the computers, TNII, and the Internet is to support the primary functions of NSCC, i.e. instruction, research, public service, and the accompanying administrative support functions, by facilitating the exchange of information consistent with the purposes of the cooperating institutions that make up the TNII and the Internet.
3. Users should be aware that the TNII and the Internet are not secure networks. Information that is transmitted over these networks is not encrypted or made private between the sender and the addressee.
4. Guidelines for use of these resources (the computers, TNII, and the Internet) are as follows:
a. Individual usage of information technology resources should be consistent with the goals and purposes of these resources.
b. These resources should not be used for any activity that does not support the mission and purposes of NSCC. If a particular usage is not in the best interest of the College or if it does not support the mission and purposes, then it should not be done.
c. Users shall obtain proper authorization before using NSCC information technology resources.
d. User access to information technology resources is granted to an individual by the college solely for the grantee’s own use. User access privileges must not be transferred or shared, except as expressly authorized by an appropriate official of the college.
e. Material published on the NSCC site is protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Any questions pertaining to copyright infringement should be directed to the Vice President of Academic Affairs.
f. College IT resources must not be used to attempt unauthorized access to private information maintained by users or the college itself.
g. Computer and network resources should not be used for commercial purposes.
h. Users must not engage in any behavior or activity that unreasonably interferes with the access privileges of other users or with the college’s ability to provide access to these resources for its entire community of users.
i. Users shall not use NSCC information technology resources for solicitation for religious or political causes.
j. These resources should not be used for any unlawful purposes.
k. Attempts to penetrate a remote site without proper authorization (“hacking”) are strictly forbidden and also violate the Tennessee Code Annotated, which states suitable punishment for violators.
l. User shall not intentionally introduce any program or data intended to disrupt normal operations (e.g. a computer “virus” or “worm”) into any NSCC information technology resource.
m. Forgery or attempted forgery of e-mail messages is prohibited.
n. Sending or attempts to send unsolicited junk mail or chain letters is prohibited.
o. The distribution and display of obscene materials is prohibited by the laws of the State of Tennessee (see Tenn. Code Ann. 39-17-902)
p. If NSCC provides access to other networks, all rules and conventions of the other networks must be followed.
q. Disruption of any activity on a remote node is forbidden.
r. Compliance with the Password Policy is required of all computer and network users.