Computer and Network Acceptable Usage

Section 5.D – Computer and Network Acceptable Usage

Campus-wide access to computing facilities is restricted to Vance-Granville Community College faculty, staff, and active students. In addition, access to Internet operations is restricted to designated guests, faculty, staff, currently-enrolled curriculum students possessing a valid student identification card, currently-enrolled continuing education students, or special students requiring access by nature of the course requirements or by an instructor’s written permission. Additional security measures for VGCC’s network are located in the Computer Security Guidelines. Authorized users may use College computing facilities, including transmissions over and through the College network, for research and scholarly or educational purposes, and for official College business, so long as such use does not:

• Violate any law or College policy,
• Involve significant use of College resources, direct costs, or substantial interference with the performance of College duties, and work, or
• Result in commercial gain or profit.

No user shall disclose an account password or share an account with another person. Instructors will not share their accounts with students, work-study students, or temporary employees of any kind. It is the responsibility of the user to protect the account from unauthorized use by changing the account password periodically and using passwords that are not easily guessed.

Any attempt to circumvent system security, guess passwords, or in any way gain unauthorized access to local or network resources is forbidden.

Transferring copyrighted materials to or from any system or via the College network without express consent of the copyright owner is prohibited and may be a violation of Federal and State Law.

Use of electronic mail and other network communications facilities to harass, offend, or annoy other users of the network, as well as external entities, is forbidden. This includes electronic “chain letters.” A Ponzi scheme is a form of chain letter that requests recipients to send money to people on a list. The US Supreme Court has determined that Ponzi Schemes are inherently fraudulent. The US Criminal Code prohibits the use of mail or wire in any attempt to defraud. Users should note that under the wire fraud statutes, the attempt to defraud is a violation, and all who are involved in the attempt, whether intentionally or not, may also be in violation.

(approved July 16, 2018)