School of Arts and Sciences Web Policy

Access to the University Web

Departments

All departments in the School of Arts & Sciences are entitled to space on a university server for a department website. It is the responsibility of each department to post and maintain the department web page(s). The department will designate a department webmaster who will have edit access to the files in the department web. The chair will notify the dean, or a representative of the dean, when the department selects a new webmaster so that appropriate network permissions can be maintained.

Faculty

All faculty in the School of Arts & Sciences are entitled to space on a university server for a personal web. It is the responsibility of the individual faculty member to post and maintain personal web page(s). Faculty members will have permission to edit their personal web pages. Individual faculty members will not have access to post to the department web unless that faculty member is also the department webmaster.

The creation of individual web pages is a matter of free speech that must be protected in an academic environment. Departments and faculty are free to post information and materials on their web pages. The School of Arts and Sciences does not edit, screen, monitor or censor information posted by authors and does not accept responsibility or liability for the information posted on web pages. This responsibility remains with the faculty member.

Additional Access

The CCSU Information Services Department maintains the university servers. The server administrator and other key Information Services personnel have administrative access to all webs on university servers. In addition, the dean, or a representative of the dean, has administrative access to the Arts & Sciences web, the department webs and all personal web pages within the School of Arts & Sciences. These individuals have access for administrative purposes only and are not entitled to edit the content of faculty pages.

Acceptable Use

Guidelines

Appropriate campus policies apply to Web pages, as do applicable State and Federal laws including laws dealing with copyright, for-profit activities, privacy, and confidentiality of individuals.

Unacceptable Behavior

Unacceptable behavior includes, but is not limited to, the following examples:

• creating, displaying or transmitting racist or sexist language or materials which are inconsistent with the responsibilities and duties of university faculty members
• copyright and licensing violations
• invading the privacy of individuals
• using the University's computer network for commercial or personal advertisements, commercial or personal solicitations, business promotions, for-profit activities, or illegal purposes
• degrading computing or network performance in ways that keep others from meeting their educational or University goals
• misrepresentation of academic credentials

 Links to Faculty Webs

Individual faculty web pages within the School of Arts and Sciences are subsets of departmental web pages and are customarily linked to the department web. Therefore, the content of faculty pages reflects on the department as well.

A member of a department may object to the content of a faculty member's web page, even if the objection does not rise to the level of unacceptable use as outlined above. This objection may be due to the accuracy of the information, the timeliness of the data, or other similar reasons. The department may suggest that the faculty member alter or remove the data in question. If the faculty member refuses, the department does not have the right to edit the page.

Academic departments within the School of Arts and Sciences shall adopt policies and procedures concerning the links to the department web page. Using its own guidelines, the department may decide to sever the link to a faculty member's web. Due process protections must be provided to the faculty member involved. The department must notify the affected faculty member and the dean by e-mail or printed memo of its intention to take this action. The link may be removed seven days after the notification unless an appeal is made. The link will remain in place until that time or until the review committee makes a decision in support of removing the link.

 Resolution of Disputes

When a department notifies a faculty member that it intends to remove the link to the faculty member's web page, the faculty member has seven days to appeal that decision to a review committee. The faculty member will notify the dean and the department chair by e-mail or printed memo that he or she is appealing the department's decision. All parties to the review procedure must agree that the decision of the review committee is final and decisive, and that there will be no further appeals of this matter. The link will remain in place until the review committee submits its decision.

Composition of the Review Committee

The review committee will consist of three members: one selected by the chair of the department involved in the dispute, and a second selected by the faculty member. The chair and faculty member will forward the names of their selections for the review committee to the dean. The dean, together with the representatives of the chair and the faculty member, will select a neutral third representative. All review committee members will be members of the campus AAUP or SUOAF/AFSCME chapters.

Meeting of the Review Committee

The neutral representative will convene the meeting of the review committee. The committee will determine what procedures to use in hearing all sides of the dispute. The review committee will render its decision in writing to the dean, the department chair and the faculty member at the conclusion of its deliberations.

This policy was ratified by the Arts & Sciences Computer Committee April 9, 1999.