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Introduction
Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) provides a wide range of technology resources in order to support the educational mission and administration of the university. The Information Technology (IT) department provides and maintains the campus network, servers, email, course management system, audio-visual resources, general and departmental computing facilities and laboratories, and institutionally-owned desktop and laptop computers. The IT department is organized as two collaborating teams:
- User Services: Provides support to the campus community with the operation of the Help Desk.
- Technology Systems: Designs, builds and maintains the technology infrastructure systems as well as custom web applications operating on EMU web servers.
Leadership of the Information Technology department as a whole is provided by the Director of Information Technology.
The systems provided by the IT department have become essential academic and administrative resources for members of the campus community. All members of the campus community are encouraged to use these resources, provided they respect the rights of others, abide by the rules and regulations of the university, and assume shared responsibility for safeguarding institutional data. These policies exist to guide proper and fair use so that all can derive maximum benefit.
These policies may be modified at any time. The Provost's Council reviews these policies periodically. Use of EMU technology resources implies consent to abide by these policies. Users found in violation may be subject to penalties of varying degrees, including temporary or permanent denial of access to IS resources. Violations may also be subject to action by campus, civil, or criminal judicial bodies.
Guiding Principles
In making information technology resources available to all members of the campus community, EMU affirms its commitment to a free and open educational environment, conducive to learning and governed by legal and ethical principles. EMU values the free flow of information. The university respects individual privacy, civility, and intellectual property rights. Because an open networked environment can be disrupted by abusive behavior and electronic information is readily copied, users of the university’s resources are honor-bound to promote and protect these institutional values.
Under normal circumstances, university officials will not examine personal information transmitted over the network or stored on university-owned computers. However, the university reserves the right to monitor system resources, including activity and accounts, with or without notice, when:
- It is necessary to protect the integrity, security, or functionality of university technology resources.
- An account or system is engaged in unusual or excessive activity.
- There is probable cause to believe that policies, regulations, rules, or laws are being violated.
Additionally, the normal operation and maintenance of the university’s technology resources requires the backup of data, the logging of activity, the monitoring of general usage patterns, and other such activities as may be necessary in order to provide desired services.