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Acceptable Use of Clark's Information Technology System
The Clark University Information Technology System includes: computers, communications networks, computer accounts, web pages, network access, central computing facilities, and related services. Access to and use of the University Information Technology System is a privilege granted to currently enrolled Clark University students, faculty, and staff. A limited set of services is also offered to University alumni.
As a user of the Information technology System, you have two basic rights:
- privacy, and
- a fair share of resources.
In turn, you bear citizenship responsibilities to preserve these rights for your fellow technology system users. This statement of rights and responsibilities is grounded in the community standards and policies outlined in the University's student, faculty and staff handbooks.
1. All computer accounts and files belong to somebody.
Your Right:
Privacy. No other user may browse, access, copy or change your computer files without your authorization.
Your Responsibility:
To uphold your right to privacy and that of your fellow users by not allowing another individual to use your computer account, and by not using another person's account or attempting to gain access to their files without authorization.
Accessing others' files or monitoring their computer or network use -- except by technology staff for system troubleshooting, maintenance, or security purposes -- constitutes a violation of privacy. Ability to access a file does not grant permission to do so.
You are responsible for any use of your account; therefore, you need to take all reasonable precautions, including maintaining a secure password and always logging your account out, to prevent use of your account by others.
2. The University Information Technology System, including Internet services, is a shared resource provided to Clark students, faculty and staff. The services support the business of the University; teaching, learning, research and administration. Recreational use of resources is not allowed to degrade System performance at any time.
Your Right:
Fair access. No other user may deny, diminish or disrupt your access through any means, including:
- intentionally, recklessly or negligently damaging equipment and other physical resources;
- intentionally, recklessly or negligently attempting to degrade, disrupt, or damage computer system and network performance, software, data or data transmission;
- unduly consuming computing or network resources;
- violating the privacy of your files and accounts;
- masquerading as another user;
- distributing material which violates applicable local, state, and federal laws;
- distributing material which is demeaning or discriminatory via any electronic mail, bulletin board or other computer network facility;
- making random or mass mailings; and
- using resources for commercial or political purposes.
Your Responsibility:
To uphold the right to fair access of your fellow users by properly utilizing resources and avoiding any detrimental effect on the work of others.
You are responsible for the behavior of any computer you connect to the Clark network; therefore you need to take all reasonable precautions including running anti-virus software and keeping its virus definitions current.
Your use of the Clark University Information Technology System must comply with all federal, Massachusetts, and other applicable law; all applicable contracts and licenses; and University policies as articulated in the student, faculty and staff handbooks. These laws, contracts, licenses and policies include:
- laws governing libel, privacy, copyright, trademark, obscenity, and child pornography;
- the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which prohibits eavesdropping on network data;
- the Computer Abuse Amendments Act, which prohibits spreading viruses or other harmful code;
- The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which prohibits the distribution of copyrighted materials over the Internet for which the distributor does not have permission;
- the University's discrimination and anti-harassment policy;
- the University's non-profit status; and
- all applicable software licenses.
3. Policy Violations
Alleged violations of this policy, or violation of other University policies in the course of using the Information Technology System, may result in an immediate loss of privileges and may also result in the referral of the matter to the appropriate judicial authority as specified in each University handbook.
The University has designated several persons to respond to complaints about violations of this policy. In the case of:
- an undergraduate student, this is the Dean of Students;
- a GSOM student, the Dean of GSOM;
- all other graduate students, the Dean of Graduate Studies and Research;
- administrative staff, the Director of Human Resources;
- a faculty member, the Provost;
- DMCA copyright infringement complaints, the Vice President for Information Technology.
The University will respect the privacy of users of its systems and not allow frivolous inspection of users' email or other files. However, access may be necessary in situations that call for the investigation of a complaint, determined by one of the university administrators above to be reasonable, or when compelled to do so by law. All requests for access will be communicated to the Vice President for Information Technology. In all cases, a good faith attempt will be made to notify the user.