Technology Acceptable Use Procedure (TAUP)

PURPOSE:  The purpose of the Wayne Community College’s (WCC) Technology Acceptable Use Procedure (TAUP) is to enhance and support the educational mission of the college. This procedure is subordinate to all applicable laws of the State of North Carolina and the United States of America. All students, faculty, staff and public patrons are responsible for using WCC’s technological resources in an effective, ethical, and lawful manner to ensure that the College maintains confidentiality, integrity, and availability of systems and information assets.

PROCEDURE:  The goal is to promote educational excellence for all Wayne Community College students, faculty, staff, and patrons by facilitating resource sharing, accessing outside information and research while encouraging technological innovation and worldwide communication. The following guidance on acceptable and unacceptable use is not intended to be all-inclusive in a fast-changing technological environment, but should provide the basis for determination of what is and what is not acceptable regarding technology usage.

Acceptable Use:

• Use consistent with the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) for the Microelectronics Center of North Carolina (MCNC). WCC uses MCNC as its Internet Service Provider (ISP) and is therefore subject to its established AUP. MCNC’s AUP is available on its website: https://www.mcnc.org/policies.
• Use related to administrative and other support activities considered consistent with the mission of Wayne Community College.
• Use for purposes of, or in support of, education and research.

Unacceptable Use:

• Use of WCC’s technological resources that violates federal, state and local laws or statues.
• Use inconsistent with MCNC’s AUP.
• Use of WCC’s technological resources, which provides or assists in gaining unauthorized or inappropriate access to systems, networks, software, or data at WCC or any other sites.
• Use of the Internet for any illegal activity, including violation of copyrights, patents, trademarks, software licensing, or other contracts.
• Use of the Internet or other technology for financial or commercial gain, including but not limited to gambling.
• Use for activities that interfere with the ability of others to use WCC’s technological resources effectively.
• Use for activities that result in the loss of another person’s work or unauthorized access to another person’s work.
• Use of another person’s account.
• Divulging passwords to anyone else.
• Divulging personal, confidential, or sensitive information.
• Use for distribution of obscene, pornographic, abusive or threatening messages via electronic communications of any means.
• Use for a defamatory, libelous, or slanderous purpose.
• Use in a discriminatory manner, to promote discrimination or incite hate.
• Use for distribution of chain letters or broadcasting to lists of individuals in such a manner that might cause congestion on the network or cause College networks to be blocked by external systems due to “spamming” or other misuse (unsolicited bulk messages or advertising for example).
• Reconfiguring or tampering with the operation of the College’s computer systems and components, networks, and wide area networks to which the college subscribes, including the Internet. This includes any circumvention of IT security systems.
• Cyberharassment, which includes Cyberbullying, is defined by the National Conference of State Legislatures as follows: “Cyberharassment differs from cyberstalking in that it may generally be defined as not involving a credible threat.  Cyberharassment usually pertains to threatening or harassing email messages, instant messages, or to blog entries or websites dedicated solely to tormenting an individual.”  Reference North Carolina General Statues 14-196(b) and 14-458.1.
• Cyberstalking, which is defined by the National Conference of State Legislatures as follows: “Cyberstalking is the use of the Internet, email or other electronic communications to stalk, and generally refers to a pattern of threating or malicious behaviors. Cyberstalking may be considered the most dangerous of the three types of Internet harassment, based on a posing credible threat of harm.”  Reference N.C. General Statue 14-196.3.
• Sending malware, viruses, worms, Trojan horses, email bombs, spyware, adware, keyloggers, or other harmful software code.

Wayne Community College reserves the right and will exercise its responsibility to record and/or monitor its systems for acceptable use. This may include (except where prohibited by law) examination of the content (including private or personal content) stored with email and data files of any users, and examination of the access history of any users while on Wayne Community College systems or devices. WCC makes every effort to protect from threats and vulnerabilities and expects all users of its systems to adhere to all procedures governing use of technology.

Violations of this procedure may result in a reduction of access to WCC technological resources or complete denial of access to WCC technological resources. IT staff will communicate all violations to the appropriate Vice President. Violators will be subject to College disciplinary processes and the College may pursue legal action. Action taken by WCC does not preclude the possibility of legal action taken by others.

MODIFICATIONS:  WCC reserves the right to modify this procedure at any time.