Computing Policies

Appropriate Use Guidelines

Bard provides electronic information systems for the campus community in order to support the educational mission of the College. These systems serve important needs for our faculty, staff, and students. Electronic mail messages, like telephone and paper mail communications, are private and privileged exchanges deserving protection and security. Bard views with most serious concern any fraudulent action or any violation of security related to electronic communications and is prepared to take appropriate corrective and punitive actions in response to such behavior.

The rights, freedoms, and responsibilities inherent in the use of electronic information systems are rooted in the declarations of both the Bard College Statement on Academic Freedom and the Bard College Email Lists and Usage Policy. Therefore, the College expects that the community of people who use electronic information resources will do nothing in that action which infringes upon the rights of others on this campus or elsewhere and will not apply campus information systems in any fraudulent ways.

Thus, all users agree to the following:

1. College computer facilities will not be used for activities that are in violation of campus, local, state, or federal rules and laws. This includes:
   • Copyright infringement
   • Cheating
   • Theft
   • Vandalism
   • Software piracy (the unauthorized duplication or use of copyrighted software)
   • Media piracy (the unauthorized duplication and distribution of copyrighted text, still image, video, and audio files e.g. MP3)
   • Sending messages that encourage or promote violation of the above or other college, local, state or federal regulations
2. Use of College computer facilities for commercial purposes or personalprofit is forbidden with the exception of the publication of scholarly works which may incidentally provide revenues to the author(s).
3. Users will respect an individual’s right to privacy and freedom of expression and will not read, copy, or print material written by others that is not intended for public inspection. Inappropriate use includes:
   • Sending messages in such a way that makes them appear as though they originated from a different person or that deliberately misrepresent yourself or your authority
   • Sending messages that are severely abusive or threaten an individual’s safety or for sexual, ethnic, religious, or other minority harassment
   • Sending or forwarding chain letters
   • Deliberately flooding a user’s mailbox with automatically generated mail
   • Sending mail that is deliberately designed to interfere with proper mail delivery or access
   • Attempting to gain access to another person’s files regardless of the intent or result
   • Broadcasting messages to large numbers without regard to the relevance of the material
   • Sending messages or engaging in other conduct intended to suppress or disrupt debate
   • Sending messages that are designed to interfere with normal system operation
4. Users will refrain from any activity that threatens the integrity of the computer system at Bard. This includes, but is not limited to:
   • Modification of system services and utilities;
   • Permitting others to access College resources from outside of Bard;
   • Installing any hardware or software that threatens the integrity of the overall campus network, “hacking” or other sabotage;
   • Activities that interfere with public access to computer resources.
   • See more specific examples of such activities.
     • Every user is personally responsible for the integrity of the account assigned to that individual. Usernames are not transferable to other users or publicly distributable without prior authorization from Bard IT. Violations of these rules will be reported to the appropriate campus judicial body. Any punitive actions will be determined by that body and could include disconnection from the campus network.
     • The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) prohibits torrenting of copyrighted material on the campus network. When we receive complaints we are required to shut down campus network access. Users must visit the Help Desk to speak with a staff member in order to have access restored. First time offenders are issued a warning and required to sign an acknowledgement that is kept on file. Subsequent offenses are adjudicated by the Office of the Dean of Student Affairs, and could result in a $50 fine.
5. The use of non-campus network devices such as personal routers is strongly discouraged because they: 1) prevent users from achieving authenticated access to network resources, such as online library resources, that rely on campus network IP addresses; and 2) confuse connectivity diagnostics & delay restoring your internet connection. For these reasons, when we become aware of an unauthorized device of this kind, we will be forced to disable it.

Email Usage Policies

These College-sponsored email networks form part of the College workplace, and thus are subject to different standards from other forms of communication through which faculty, staff, and students may choose to express their ideas.  For this reason, and to ensure that these lists remain a reliable means of communication, it is important that users abide by the rules of communication outlined in the faculty, staff and student handbooks. In addition:

• Impersonation of other mailing list users, e.g. faking the sending email address, is prohibited.  Senders must use their assigned college email addresses to post to any email list and are strongly encouraged to include their full name in the body of the message.
• Commercial mailings and mailings that suggest College endorsement of any political candidate, organization, or ballot initiative are prohibited. More generally, because Bard College is a non-profit, tax-exempt organization and, as such, is subject to federal, state, and local laws regarding commercial and political activities, any commercial use of IT Systems for non-Bard purposes is generally prohibited, except when specifically authorized by the College and permitted under College rules.
• Harassment, bullying, and threats, including threats of physical harm, are prohibited, as are violations of privacy and communications that violate confidential employment processes and disciplinary proceedings. As emails using these lists are distributed in the workplace, they should not display materials or images that could constitute sexual or other forms of harassment.
• Use of specific email lists for purposes other than which they are intended is prohibited. Email should be sent to the appropriate mailing list as described above: happening, pennysaver, faculty, staff, or college. If a member of the Bard College community wishes to send an email message that is not appropriate for the mass mailing lists described in this document, an independent list may be requested through the Bard IT Helpdesk.  Subscribers of this list must be populated manually and all such lists will allow users to unsubscribe.

Violations of these rules are subject to special disciplinary processes associated with College email list usage, outlined below.

Top-Level Domain Hosting

Bard College will NOT provide students with top-level domain (abc.com, abc.org, abc.net, etc.) hosting services REGARDLESS of the purpose.If you require this type of service, we suggest that you consider one of the many free domain hosting services available on the web such as those listed at the following URL: www.google.com/search?q=free+domain+hosting