ANGELINA COLLEGE COMPUTER USE POLICY

It is the policy of the Angelina College Library to support and promote the knowledge and use of electronic technology for students, faculty, staff, and administration to the extent possible within the financial resources of the institution.  This policy recognizes that a major element of education is information transfer; and one of the essential components of information transfer is electronic technology, with all accompanying hardware, software, databases, networks, and support services.

Because of the dollar costs associated with the initiation and keeping current of electronic technology, the equitable allocation of resources, and the potential problems of institutional security and liability, the following policies are set forth to guide its use.

The electronic resources of Angelina College Library are made available to authorized persons in the College community to assist in the pursuit of educational and professional goals.  The resources include all hardware, software, databases, and networks, including access to the Internet.  Access and use of the resources are considered to be a privilege granted by the College, and unauthorized use, misuse, or abuse by any user will result in the appropriate disciplinary action.  Angelina College reserves the right to extend, restrict, or forbid access to institutional electronic resources.

Access to the electronic resources owned or operated by AC imposes certain responsibilities and obligations and is granted subject to College policies and local, state, and federal law.  Appropriate ethical standards are derived directly from standards of common sense and decency that apply to the use of any public resource.  Appropriate ethical use will reflect academic honesty, show restraint in the consumption of shared resources, and will demonstrate respect for intellectual property, ownership of data, system security mechanisms, and the individual’s right to privacy.

Access to any electronic resource owned or operated by AC must be granted by the person who is responsible for the resource and authorized to grant access.  Any attempt to access or to assist in the access of any of AC’s electronic resources without proper authorization is an express violation of this policy.

Specific conduct expressly forbidden by AC’s Computer Use Policy includes the following:

            1.         Copying College-owned or licensed software or data to another computer system for personal or external use without prior and authorized approval

            2.         Attempting to modify College-owned or licensed software or data without prior and authorized approval

            3.         Attempting to damage or disrupt the operation of college computing equipment and databases or the transmission of data communication

            4.         Using the electronic technology of AC for commercial and/or private proprietary purposes

            5.         Using the electronic technology of AC for the viewing or transmittal of obscene/pornographic material or material containing derogatory references to any individual or group based on the gender, age, race, ethnicity, or religion of that individual or group

            6.         Using the electronic technology of AC in any manner to intimidate, harass, or annoy another person

            7.         Using any portion of the electronic technology of AC to access non-College computing and information resources for the purposes of copying or modifying privately owned software/data without prior and authorized written approval or to damage/disrupt the operation of non-College electronic technology systems.

Persons found to be in violation of any of the above requirements and prohibitions are subject to AC disciplinary procedures that may include probation, suspension, expulsion from the College, termination, and/ or restitution of funds.

The use of external resources accessed via AC electronic technology resources is subject to the guideline of those external resources.

All uses of AC electronic technology resources is subject to federal and state regulations and laws, including but not limited to the following:

The Texas Computer Crimes Statute (Section l, Title 7, Chapter 33 of the Texas Penal Code); Federal Copyright Law, Title 17, Section 117; and Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974

Federal and State Laws also regulate unauthorized access to computer facilities.

Non-student computer patrons are limited to two 1 hour (non-consecutive) sessions on all library computers except email computers.
Non-student patrons under the age of 18 may not normally use the computers.
Email computers are limited to 30 minute non-consecutive sessions.
Computer usage may be limited to one person per computer.
Users will be charged .05 per page for all pages printed.