Xref: eff comp.admin.policy:3077 alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk:8107 Newsgroups: comp.admin.policy,alt.comp.acad-freedom.talk,cis.opinion Path: eff!kadie From: kadie@eff.org (Carl M. Kadie) Subject: Newer Policy from Ohio State University's CIS Dept. Message-ID: <1993Apr28.190034.13600@eff.org> Originator: kadie@eff.org Sender: usenet@eff.org (NNTP News Poster) Nntp-Posting-Host: eff.org Organization: The Electronic Frontier Foundation Date: Wed, 28 Apr 1993 19:00:34 GMT Lines: 645 [Richard Parent, parent@cis.ohio-state.edu, says that the updated CIS policy I posted last week is out-of-date. He sent me a TeX version of the current policy, which I've reformatted for on-line display. I'm not sure, but I believe the out-of-date policy is the one that is available on-line to CIS users. - Carl] Policies of the CIS Department Computer Access, Staff and Support Computer Committee 29 January 1993 1 Overview This document is intended to specify policies that pertain to the usage and administration of the computer facilities within the Department of Computer and Information Science (CIS) at The Ohio State University. They have been reviewed by the Computer Committee and adopted by the CIS faculty. These policies reflect the current official position of the Department. They are reviewed periodically and brought up to date to reflect the current state-of-affairs in the CIS Department. With the advent of the College of Engineering computing fee, several issues have been raised concerning the equitable policies towards both fee-payers and non-fee-payers. Some of these have not been resolved yet and this is reflected in this document. This document is available from the Chair of the Computer Committee. The name of the current Chair can be obtained from the main office of the CIS Department. 1.1 The Computer Committee The Computer Committee of the CIS Department is responsible for making all policy decisions relating to the computer facilities within the Department. 1.2 Review Process Revisions that represent minor changes, after having been discussed and approved by the Computer Committee, are made by the Computer Committee once the full faculty has been notified of the changes. Revisions that represent major shifts in policy are discussed in the Computer Committee and voted on by the full faculty. 1.3 Attitudes and Assumptions The following attitudes and assumptions guide the policies: o Right to Privacy. Privacy issues relating to electronic information and electronic property generally are treated analogous to privacy issues relating to material property. o Reasonable Use. It is assumed that the computing environment within the Department is characterized by a friendly user community and that there will be "reasonable use" of the computing environment by the users. o Fair Allocation of Resources. Limited resources and a large user population make it necessary to establish allocation guidelines for the computing resources in order to ensure equal access to all. o Social Responsibility. The CIS Department, because its computer network is on a larger international network, assumes certain responsibilities as a member of a growing electronic community; this has consequences both in terms of the services the CIS Department provides as well as the need for security measures. 1.4 Types of Users Various classes of users have different usage limits or access rights because of the roles they fulfill in the official activities of the Department. At the same time, the Department tries to be flexible enough to accommodate individual needs. Petitions for exceptions to the general policies stated in this document are to be made in writing to the Computer Committee. The following categories of users have been identified as being relevant to the policy considerations discussed. o Faculty consists of both tenure-track faculty as well as instructors. o Computer Support Staff are the full-time and part-time staff members whose job it is to administer, enhance and maintain the computing environment for the Department. o Graduate Students are active CIS graduate students who are officially in the Department. - Supported Graduate Students receive support from the CIS Department: GTAs, GRAs and GAAs. - Unsupported Graduate Students are graduate students not receiving support from the CIS Department, but who may or may not be receiving support from other sources within the University or from outside agencies. o Undergraduate CIS Majors are undergraduate students that have been officially admitted to the CIS Department as majors; they may be in the College of Engineering, or the College of Arts and Sciences, or in the Business College. o non-CIS students are CIS pre-majors, non-CIS Undergraduates and non-CIS graduate students who are currently taking CIS courses. o Guests are all others. In addition to these categories, the College of Engineering computer fee has established another classification: o fee-payers are, obviously, all users of the CIS computing network who are paying the College of Engineering computing fee. This will consist of all CIS Graduate Students, all Undergraduate CIS ENG majors and anyone who voluntarily pays the fee. o non-fee-payers are all the people who have an account on the CIS computing network who are not fee-payers. 1.5 Document Structure The policies herein concern access to, and support of, the computer facilities of the CIS Department. The following general categories of issues for policy considerations have been identified and are discussed in the following sections: o Physical Access. o Accounts: Electronic Access and Use. o Bitmaps o Making Requests to the Computer Support Staff o Software Support. o Hardware Support. o Research Monies Charged to External Grants. o Computer Support Staff. 2 Physical Access Our objective is to provide maximum access to the physical facilities of the Department while maintaining a reasonable level of security and while staying within the constraints imposed by limited resources of money and staff. Physical access to the following is of concern: o Buildings: - Bolz Hall (note that Hitchcock Hall connects to Bolz and that giving access to Bolz is also giving access to Hitchcock.) - Welding Engineering Labs. - Caldwell Lab. o CIS Main Office (228 Bolz Hall). o General CIS labs: - 422 Bolz Hall. - 118 Bolz Hall. - 111 Bolz Hall. o Grad Labs: - 314 Hitchcock Hall. - 119 Welding Engineering Labs. o Special-Purpose Labs, e.g.: - Graphics Lab - LAIR - PAL o Departmental Equipment at Home 2.1 Buildings In giving access to buildings we need to consider the other Departments in the building. For security reasons, we do not want to give out too many keys. We give building keys to supported grad students, faculty, and staff because they are official employees of the Department. We also give building keys to anyone who has an office, assigned by us, in the building. For buildings in which graduate labs are located, building keys will also be given out to unsupported graduate students when requested in writing and when the return of the key can be assured. Specific policy concerning return of keys is to be determined by the Computer Committee. 2.2 Main Office Access to the main office is necessary for all faculty and all full-time staff. Therefore, they are given keys to the main office. At one time keys to the main office were also given to supported grad students, but because of problems, this policy has been discontinued. 2.3 General CIS Labs These are accessible to everyone during the hours that they are open. Of course, if the lab has CIS workstations, only individuals with 2.4 Grad Labs The grad labs are set aside for general use by graduate students and faculty. Access to workstations and printers are needed to prepare classes, dissertations and papers. We give grad lab keys to all faculty, staff and grad students. Grad labs are necessary as a means of designating workstations to which graduate students have priority access. In addition, because the printers in the grad labs are used by GTAs and faculty for test preparation, it is necessary to exclude undergraduates from these labs. 2.5 Special-Purpose Labs Various special purpose labs, such as the Graphics Lab, the AI Lab, the Chameleon Lab, and the PAL Lab spring up at various times. Keys to these labs are to be handled by the faculty members involved in conjunction with the staff. No formal policy on these labs will be considered by the Computer Committee unless petitioned by one of the faculty members involved. 2.6 Departmental Hardware at Home At times, it may be necessary and/or convenient for a faculty member to work extensively at home on a paper, book or programming project. Short term usage of OSU hardware at home is permitted but requires written justification (see appropriate form) to the Departmental Chair. Any long term use of Departmental equipment is not acceptable. 3 Accounts: Electronic Access and Use 3.1 Philosophy Three main principles guide the policies of accounts and electronic access. o Right to Privacy. An individual has the same rights to privacy with regard to his electronic domain that he has with regard to his physical domain, such as desk and office. The Department treats violations of the rights of privacy with the same severity, whether they be physical or electronic transgressions. o Reasonable Use. Limited resources and a large user community dictate the need for all users to consider the right of others to work effectively. Any behavior by a user that significantly impacts the working environment of others, either directly or indirectly, is considered unreasonable. Extensive use of computer facilites for personal use is prohibited. o Academic Integrity. As an educational institution, we must maintain the integrity of activities relating to education. Electronic violations of such will warrant the same severity as would any other violation. 3.2 Handling of Violations A user who violates the electronic access and use guidelines should be aware that such transgression can be taken very seriously. Privacy violations may be dealt with by charges equivalent of "breaking and entering" if appropriate. Violating reasonable use of computer resources may result in permanent termination of access to the Department's computing facility. For academic integrity violations, academic misconduct proceedings are a typical recourse, if appropriate, forfeiting any and all rights to electronic access in this Department in the future and may result in termination of employment and/or grounds for denial of future employment by the Department. (As usual with Academic Misconduct, this is a matter for the instructor of the course to determine, with the possible assistance of the Computer Committee Chair and Computer Support Staff.) This policy pertains to staff as well as students and faculty. Staff are expected to only access information which is necessary for the performance of their job, and only inspect that information to the degree dictated by the level necessary for carrying out activities specific to their job. In a situation in which a possible violation has been detected, the evidence will be taken to the Chair of the Computer Committee or the Chair of the Department. If the case is deemed to have merit, the accounts involved may be locked in order to preserve evidence, and the backups of those accounts will be saved. New working accounts may be set up when appropriate to allow the individuals involved to continue with their work until the case is resolved. The case will then be presented to the full Computer Committee and the Chair of the Department for further processing and/or investigation. If warranted, legal authorities may be called in, and/or academic misconduct procedures may be initiated. 3.3 Categories Electronic access to and use of the following is of concern: o Computing, Accounts and Associated Files. o Workstations. o Printers. o Mail. o File Servers and Disks. 3.4 Computing, Accounts and Associated Files 3.4.1 Reasonable Use A computing account is meant to be used for classwork or research work directly related to the reason the individual was given the account. "Reasonable use" of the account is allowed, such as for experimenting with software not directly related to a class or occasionally playing a computer game. This is permitted only as long as such use does not impact the ability of others to get their "legitimate" work done and there is not a significant financial cost incurred either directly or indirectly by the Department (e.g. printer paper). Using up excessive amounts of CPU time or disk space are example violations of "reasonable use." Non-instructional computing (computing not directly concerned with completing class work), such as game-playing or experimenting with non-instructional software, is only to be done when not restricting the use of computers by others. Specifically, if a lab is busy, game-playing and experimentation are not allowed and are considered a violation of "reasonable use". Violators may be ejected from the system by the lab operator. Displaying offensive bitmaps in a public lab is not allowed. A conservative interpretation of 'offensive' should be used. 3.4.2 Rights to Privacy of Electronic Information A CIS computer account is meant to be used by the individual assigned to it and and by no one else. If this principle is violated, it may be considered as academic misconduct and dealt with accordingly. The rationale for this inflexible position is one of accountability. If mischief has been traced to a certain account, then the owner of that account is held entirely responsible. To allow unrestricted access of an account, even when permission is given by the owner, is to open the Department up to owners of accounts not being able to be held accountable for security problems originating from their accounts. This is an unacceptable position for the Department to put itself in and, therefore, sharing access to an account is not permitted. Computer files represent a new form of property separable from the media they are recorded on. The contents of a file are to be treated analogous to physical property. The computer files of an account may not be inspected, copied, changed or otherwise tampered with unless explicit permission is given by the owner. The only exception is for purposes relevant to the administration of the computer system. Notice that copying (i.e., stealing or "pirating") computer software is also prohibited under this policy. 3.4.3 Types of Accounts, Their Longevity and Termination There are five types of accounts that are of concern: o Permanent Accounts. These accounts are given to individuals for as long as they are affiliated with the Department. The user has two weeks to save his files after his affiliation with the Departmented is terminated. The Department will maintain email connections to his account for six months. o non-CIS OSU students wanting to use software here. Students should get access to the CIS network if and only if they are enrolled in a class. These accounts are given only for a specific CIS course and last only for that one quarter. The account will be terminated at the end of exam week for the quarter which it is given. This may change if the College computer fee is established. The policy that we would consider then would be to allow students in the college to get accounts subject to availability of resources. o non-CIS persons collaborating with CIS faculty If an account directly contributes to the specific research of the CIS faculty member, then the account is allowed. We don't want to get into issues of formally policing the 'directly contributes' or the 'specific research' but we do want to be assured that that is the reason for the account. It must be renewed every quarter and considered by the committee. It would NOT be a free account. Quarterly renewal is based on identifiable progress made in the research. o companies with CIS connections wanting internet access. This is to be discouraged. We will consider some type of policy in which the company must give a grant to the Department. o non-CIS classes in crisis. This must be considered on a case-by-case basis. It will be reviewed by the Committee. It is to be discouraged and will, in general, require a letter from Chairman of the class' Department and monthly rental for each account. This is not to be granted repeatedly. 3.5 Workstations A person logged onto the console of a workstation has the right to exclusive use of the workstation. Users who remotely log in should exercise judicious use of cycles and memory if there is a console user. Dial-in users should use designated dial-in workstations, or their own office workstations. Judicious use of multiple workstations in parallel during the day or during the night is allowed. If such use is extensive, the Chair of the Computer Committee or the facilities manager should be notified prior to its initiation. Basically, the ability of other users to work should not be impeded by anyone else's use of the resources. 3.6 File Servers and Disks Standard quota for disk space is determined in a way to provide the most disk space to a wide range of users while still allowing for the flexibility to accommodate individual requirements. A user who needs additional disk space may request an increase in the quota by filling out a "UNIX Disk Space Request" form available in the document rack in the 2nd floor hallway in Bolz Hall. A requested increase of 50% from the default personal quota (with reasonable cause and a faculty member's signature) will be granted by the operator without further review. Any larger increase must be approved by the CIS Computer Committee Chair. When necessary, the Chair will bring increases to the attention of the full Committee. Special project or group directories to be under the control of a faculty or staff member may be requested and these may receive significantly larger disk allocations with approval of the CIS Computer Committee. Any user who consistently violates the disk quota limits and who refuses to conform to the approved limits or to successfully apply for an increase in the limits may have the account locked. The user must provide assurance that disk quota will be honored before access will be reinstalled. Continued violation or an unwillingness to honor the disk quota will be brought to the attention of the Chair of the Computer Committee and considered to be a violation of "reasonable use." and may result in permanent termination of computer privileges. 3.7 Printers Each user is permitted to make appropriate use of the printers for his/her own work. It is recognized that legitimate printing needs will vary widely among users. However, all users are expected to observe the guidelines found in the short subject document on "Reducing Your Laser Printer Use" available in HI 314. At present there are no printer quotas; we rely on the reasonableness of the user community until and unless that proves unwise. Extensive use of printer facilites for personal use is prohibited. 3.8 Electronic Mail All users of the CIS Department labs are encouraged to use electronic mail and electronic bulletin boards as a source of information and better communication. All users are expected to learn to use electronic mail and bulletin boards/newsgroups to facilitate internal communication (see short subject documents available in HI 314). All messages sent anywhere by any one must be "appropriate" (see short subject document on "Standards and Customs"). The Department expects "reasonable use" of electronic networks by everyone. Bandwidth should be limited and access should not be viewed as an unlimited resource. The objectives of this policy are obvious. First, on-campus electronic communication is a very effective way of contacting people who may not be immediately available, thus avoiding"telephone tag" and wasting time. It is also used by instructors to disseminate information and receive feedback from their students in a timely fashion, and it is therefore crucial that everyone use it. Electronic mail, as far as reasonable use and access is concerned, should be considered analogous to what is often referred to as 'snail mail' or 'real' mail. That is, electronic mail has the same privacy rights as would a regular letter. While the Department has no desire to try to censor electronic messages, it does have a specific obligation to the organizations that operate computer networks to which the Department connects. In addition, the University has guidelines for acceptable behavior on the network. The Department abides by these guidelines and adopts them as defining acceptable behavior on its network. Without exception, these rules prohibit obscene language, graphics, personal attacks, attempts to send anonymous messages, using too much bandwidth, participation in or promoting chain messages and a variety of other unsociable acts. 4 Bitmaps Computers in public labs and offices are the property of the University and are part of the workplace. Therefore, images displayed on them should be governed by principles concerning appropriate use of University resources and a supportive, friendly work environment. Many users like to display an image on the background of their machine instead of the default gray background. There are publicly available images in directory /usr/local/bitmap/raster. Other images may be displayed if they meet the above guidelines and they can be stored within the user's disk quota. Any user who finds the display of a particular bitmap inappropriate may notify the operations staff. The staff will notify the displayer to remove the bitmap immediately and to refrain from further public display. The bitmap will be removed from the CIS public directory if it resides there. 5 Making Requests to the Computer Support Staff There are four mechanisms that provide interaction with the support infrastructure for the users of the computing facilities: 1. electonic request for action 2. request for project directory 3. request for increase in disk quota 4. petition to the Computer Committee. These are listed in order of the importance of the issues with which they deal. 5.1 Request There is an electronic "request" program that is available to the general user community. The request is intended to report bugs and failures of the existing system or to request for some task to be performed. This generates a message that is sent to the staff in general and ultimately to the staff member identified as being most appropriate. The resolution of the request takes place between that staff member and the person who issued the problem report. 5.2 Project Directory Request There is a paper form which can be filled out to request a project directory to be set up. Such projects should be instructional in nature and can be requested by graduate students or faculty. The form is available in HI 314 and should be turned back in there. 5.3 Request for increase in disk quota There is a paper form which can be filled out to request an increase in disk quota. Such increases should be instructional in nature and can be requested by graduate students or faculty. The form is available in HI 314 and should be turned back in there. If the increase is not considered excessive, it will be put into effect by the facilities manager. If the increase seems excessive, then it will be brought to the Chair of the Computer Committee and possibly to the full Computer Committee for a priority assessment. 5.4 Petition to the Computer Committee Petitions to the Computer Committee usually involve requests for special case exemptions to the policies stated in this and related documents, or project requests whose nature is such that submission to the facilities manager is not deemed appropriate. The Computer Committee chair will review such petitions and decide whether and when to bring them to the attention of the full Committee. 6 Software Support The computer support staff of the CIS Department provides support for the baseline computing capability of the faculty and staff, and supports the instructional mission of the Department. The baseline computing capability consists of: o standardized user interface, including shell o standardized editor, mail and other utilities o access to news boards o regular backups In addition, any software approved by the Curriculum Committee for instruction is supported by the staff. This consists mainly of languages and libraries used in any of the CIS courses. Occasionally, a faculty member will assume responsibility for the maintenance of a specific piece of instructional software. The staff manager is responsible for keeping an up-to-date list of supported software. 6.1 Backup, Archiving and Retrieval Daily and weekly backups are done on a continuing basis. During a particular quarter, files from that quarter which pertain to instruction use will be restored by the staff upon request. Other than in that case, files can be retrieved only in an emergency of equipment failure or in the case that past records are needed for academic misconduct fact gathering, a disputed grade or some other similar reason. Students whose accounts are wiped out as part of the quarterly purge should consider their files permanently gone. Individuals wanting to archive their own files should purchase their own tape and requesting a personal backup onto that tape from the staff. There are cartridge tape drives available for use by the general user community. 7 Hardware Support Similar to software support, hardware support is dictated by the fact that the funding the Department receives for its support staff is explicitly intended for its instructional mission. While some blurring of instructional and research use of equipment is useful, support of hardware being used strictly for research purposes does not fall under the responsibility of the computer support staff unless money from research grants is set aside explicitly for that purpose. 8 Incorporating Computing Charges into External Grants The formal policy with regard to incorporating computing charges into external grants is still being formed. Presently, the Department has no policy that is accepted by the OSU auditors. 9 The Computer Support Staff While the Computer Committee should not micro-manage the computer support staff, all matters pertaining to the operations of the computer facilities in the Department are, in fact, ultimately the responsibility of the Computer Commitee. Therefore, there are some issues which need the special attention of the Committee. 9.1 Hiring New Staff The manager of the computer support staff should consult the Chair of the Computer Committee prior to hiring a key staff person so the Chair may review the candidate's qualification and background prior to hiring. 9.2 Academic Misconduct in General The opportunity for abusive use of power in a staff position exists. Any staff person found guilty of Academic Misconduct, whether computer related or not, may be dismissed in order that the Department maintain the integrity of its instructional computing environment. Such action will be determined by the staff manager, the Chair of the Computer Committee and the Department Chair. 9.3 Faculty Files in Particular Some of the staff are in the unique position of having access to the entire network. Some members of the staff, especially part-time staff, are often students. The network has a major function as the instructional backbone of the Department. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that the integrity of each instructor's electronic information be maintained. Any violation of this by staff members will be dealt with by Academic Misconduct and/or legal action. -- Carl Kadie -- I do not represent EFF; this is just me. =kadie@eff.org, kadie@cs.uiuc.edu =