Computing and Network Policies

Owner: Chief Information Officer (CIO)

Author: Information Technologies Department, servicedesk@css.edu

Effective Date: 

Revised: 

Next Review Date:

Applicable laws, regulations, compliance:

I. Purpose

Information Technologies fosters an environment that promotes and enhances The College's vision and exemplifies its Benedictine values as we provide the technologies to be adaptable, efficient, competitive, secure, and forward-thinking while remaining fiscally responsible in serving our community.

The IT Department is committed to the following standards of customer service:

• Ensure clear communication
• Strive for a 24-hour response to requests
• Develop mutually agreed upon service outcomes
• Provide alternative solutions to meet requests
• Provide ease of access

IT Service Desk

IT provides the IT Service Desk for faculty, staff, and students. The Service Desk is staffed by student technical assistants who provide front-line support to all College-owned standard hardware and software.

Service Desk tasks are prioritized as follows:

• Top Priority: Immediate Response
  • Network infrastructure problems
  • Classroom problems
• Second Priority: Attempt to resolve within 1 day
  • Faculty or staff unable to complete job duties
  • Any CSS computer not bootable
• Third Priority: Attempt to resolve within 5 days 
  • The problem exists but work can still get done
• Fourth Priority: Attempt to resolve within 10 days
  • Question or request that does not impact work performance

Administrative Technologies Group

The Administrative Technologies Group supports The College's enterprise information creation and access through tools such as the Ellucian BANNER Student Information System (INB), the Cognos reporting tool, Banner Relationship Management (BRM), and Brightspace Learning Management System (LMS).

The purpose of this group is to ensure faculty, staff, and students have the information they need to effectively do their jobs, provide better customer service, and improve productivity.  In the event of limited resources, priority is given to ensuring BANNER and Blackboard are functioning properly.  Reporting priorities go to BANNER departments followed by non-BANNER administrative departments followed by non-administrative auxiliary departments.

Access to BANNER data is gained by contacting the data steward responsible for the information. Please review the Data Access Policy PDF document for information on data security and a list of data stewards.

A completed Network, BANNER, Email Request Form is required for access to the BANNER system with authorization and security defined by the office or department owning the data. The form should be sent to the Banner Security Officer. The requesting user is assigned a user code, password, and resource allocation dependent on need.

Security

As outlined in the Computer and Network Acceptable Use Policy, the Information Technologies Department is responsible for managing and overseeing security to ensure the privacy and integrity of user information.

This will include reasonable efforts to:

• Ensure that shared programs and data are available to users and are invulnerable to accidental erasure and/or tampering.
• Ensure that email and private user information (on servers) is invulnerable to accidental erasure and/or tampering.
• Ensure backups of servers, at least weekly, to ensure that any information lost, erased, or corrupted can be recovered.
• Monitor the network and servers for security breaches and unauthorized activity using available security utilities and software.
• Use available utilities to ensure secure movement of data within the CSS network and over the Internet.

Take reasonable precautions to minimize network and machine downtime.

Network Infrastructure

Information Technologies maintains a competitive network infrastructure. The network infrastructure includes campus-wide wireless coverage, redundant internet paths, and current networking and server technologies. The Network Services team strives for better than 99% uptime to provide both on and off-campus students, faculty, and staff the network resources they need.

II. Hardware and Software Standards

Information Technologies supports hardware and software standards for the entire College. Standards leverage installation, maintenance, and support costs enabling The College to provide state-of-the-art technology on a limited budget.  Priority is given to supporting standard hardware and software. College provided software are available in the Software Center.

Second-tier support is provided for non-standard hardware such as Macintosh and non-standard software such as SPSS. IT will be able to install and support the technical aspect of this technology, but may not be able to support the functionality.

Third Tier support is provided for non-standard hardware, software, and peripherals. Examples include software packages like Adobe Photoshop, hardware like iPads, smartphones, non-standard laptops, and peripherals like digital cameras and special scanners. IT will do its best to support the installation of these products, but may not be able to support them either technically or functionally.

Budget Priorities

• Top priority                
  • Hardware Replacement cycle
  • Network Infrastructure Maintenance
  • Industry-standard upgrades (Banner, Microsoft)
• Second Priority          
  • Infrastructure upgrades and enhancements
• Third Priority
  • All requests and other needs

Acquisitions

To ensure compatibility with The College's network and hardware/software standards, as well as the best price and the highest quality product, all technology purchases are made through IT Purchasing. IT will work with departments that have a technology budget or special grants to make the purchases and arrange for installation. Please contact IT Purchasing for more information.

If a department is planning to research new technology, be it a software application, a web application using an application service provider model, or a new piece of hardware, it is important to include IT for the project specification, vendor analysis, and solution selection phases. Many IT-related criteria must be considered when making this type of purchase to include Internet bandwidth, data security, compatibility, performance, etc.

IT budgets for The College's technology infrastructure which includes the network, servers, software upgrades, and a 4-year replacement cycle on desktops, laptops, and tablets pc's.  IT's yearly budget also includes a list of outstanding requests from faculty, staff, and students as well as a list of infrastructure enhancements. The budget is finalized through discussions with the Vice President of Finance, the Vice President of Academic Affairs, and the President's Staff.

Discipline-specific purchases are funded by individual departments. Examples of discipline-specific purchases include equipment for the Motion Analysis lab, cBord equipment for foodservice, iPads, and the Electronic Medical Record application for Health Services. The IT Department will facilitate these purchases to ensure compatibility of the hardware or software with College standards, review security issues, and secure the best price and quality. The Department is responsible for the initial purchase and ongoing maintenance and replacement costs.

Personal Purchasing

The College does not endorse any specific vendor for the purchase of hardware or internet access service. When contacting vendors for specific details on pricing information, ask if the vendor provides an academic discount. If a discount is provided, you may be required to submit proof of your status as a College of St. Scholastica faculty, staff, or student.

Personal software purchases can be made through the Saints Shop who has set up an agreement with JourneyED.com that provides steeply discounted pricing on hundreds of software titles. Use this link to view the available list of software titles, pricing, and to place an order. When purchasing, you may be required to submit proof of your status as a College of St. Scholastica faculty, staff, or student.

No technical support will be provided by The College's IT Department.

III. Computer/Network Acceptable Use Policy

Access to computer systems and networks owned or operated by The College of St. Scholastica is a privilege that imposes certain responsibilities and obligations and is granted subject to College policies and local, state, and federal laws. The objective of this policy is to ensure an available, reliable, secure, and responsive network environment at The College of St. Scholastica. It is the responsibility of each user to ensure that The College's technology is used appropriately.

Acceptable Use Policy

Any activity that compromises the performance of The College's computers and/or network such that others are negatively affected is not acceptable. Acceptable use is always ethical, reflects academic honesty, and shows restraint in the consumption of shared resources. It demonstrates respect for intellectual property, ownership of data, system security mechanisms, and an individual's rights to privacy and freedom from intimidation, harassment, and unwarranted annoyance. If any use adversely impacts the network, the user will be asked to reconfigure his or her work so that network impact is avoided.

Examples of inappropriate use at any time include but are not limited to:

• Violations of the rights of any person or company protected by copyright, trade secret, patent or other intellectual property, or similar laws or regulations, including, but not limited to, the installation or distribution of "pirated" or other software products that are not appropriately licensed for use by The College of St. Scholastica.
• Unauthorized copying of copyrighted material including, but not limited to, digitization and distribution of photographs from magazines, books or other copyrighted sources, copyrighted music, and the installation of any copyrighted software for which The College or the end-user does not have an active license.
• Introduction of malicious programs onto any device connected to the campus network (i.e., viruses, worms, Trojan horses, email bombs, etc.).
• Revealing your account password to others or allowing the use of your account by others. This includes student employees as well as family and other household members when work is being done at home.
• Using a College computing asset to actively engage in procuring or transmitting material that is in violation of sexual harassment or hostile workplace laws in the user's local jurisdiction.
• Making fraudulent offers of products, items, or services originating from any College account.
• Effecting security breaches or disruptions of network communication. Security breaches include, but are not limited to, accessing data of which the employee is not an intended recipient or logging into a server or account that the employee is not expressly authorized to access unless these duties are within the scope of regular duties. For purposes of this section, "disruption" includes, but is not limited to, network sniffing, pinged floods, packet spoofing, denial of service, and forged routing information for malicious purposes.
• Port scanning or security scanning is expressly prohibited unless prior notification to the Information Technologies Department is made.
• Executing any form of network monitoring which will intercept data not intended for the employee's host, unless this activity is a part of the employee's normal job/duty.
• Circumventing user authentication or security of any host, network, or account.
• Interfering with or denying service to any user or network (i.e. denial of service attack).
• Using any program/script/command, or sending messages of any kind, with the intent to interfere with, or disable, a user's terminal session, via any means, locally or via the Internet/Intranet/Extranet.

Software License Compliance Policy

Software may only be used in compliance with applicable license and purchasing agreements. Only authorized copying of files or programs and authorized program utilization are ethical and legal. The Information Technologies Department is charged with the responsibility for enforcing software licensing compliance for The College. 

Software License Compliance Procedures

It is the policy of The College of St. Scholastica to respect all software copyrights and to adhere to the terms of all software licenses. Faculty, staff, and students may not duplicate any licensed software or related documentation for use either at The College or elsewhere unless authorized to do so by written agreement with the licensor. 

Individual Computer Policy

Users are responsible for maintaining security controls on their college-issued computer equipment that connects to The College's Network, including but not limited to: encryption of laptops that may contain confidential information; current antivirus software; up-to-date system patches; and screen saver passwords. Computers owned by The College will be configured in this manner. Please note that confidential data is not to be stored on desktops or any auxiliary storage device.

Authorized Users

Authorized Users of College computer networks and resources include faculty, staff, contracted Application Service Providers, contract employees, official guests, and all currently registered students. Temporary privileges will be given, as appropriate, for official guests at The College. Unauthorized users may not use The College's computer systems or networks.

Contract employees must read and sign the "contract employee" agreement in Human Resources.

Personal Use

The College's network, and computing resources connected to it, are designed to be used for College purposes. Authorized users may utilize The College's network and computing resources for their own use on their own time as long as that use abides by all College policies and local, state, and federal laws.

The College expects users to be responsible in their use of the system. Faculty, staff, employees, and agents of The College agree to refrain from any private communication which suggests that there is College approval of such communication.

Privacy

The College does not intend, as a matter of policy, to monitor the use of technology (including email) and will respect individual privacy to the extent feasible. However, users understand and consent to any monitoring of network services deemed necessary by The College in its discretion to investigate and enforce its Computer and Network Policies, maintaining the integrity and efficient operation of The College's systems, or as may be required in connection with legal requests.

Modifications to this Policy

The Chief Information Officer reserves the right to modify this policy at any time. Users of the system will receive prompt notification of all modifications.

Policies

All faculty and staff are expected to have read and been in compliance with the policies.