Principles & Guidelines for WWW Use at UCO ¹

Version 1.1, April 16, 2001
Subcommittee Members: Brendan Lalor, Loren Gatch & Pat Casey.

Contents

1. Stage-Setting: Academic Freedom, Institutional Image, & Responsibility
2. The Heart of the Matter: Web Content

• Forbidden Content
• Required Content (for Professional, Individual, Departmental, and Organization Pages)
• Consequences of Violation

3. Miscellaneous: Assistance and Access
4. About the Document of Which This is a Summary

1. Stage-Setting: Academic Freedom, Institutional Image, & Responsibility

The Guide ²(1.3) accepts decentralization and academic freedom as integral to the internet's development, and allows that each niche in the University community is governed by its own standards (e.g., of professional ethics, of appropriateness of disciplinary content). Likewise, UCO's College of Liberal Arts respects the First Amendment rights of freedom of speech, including academic freedom of artists and scholars. Accordingly, it does not restrict the contents of email or web pages of staff, faculty, or students beyond the restrictions inherent in complying with the law and these guidelines. However, since the UCO homepage is a "front door" to the University, it should reflect UCO's reputation. The Guide lays down policies aimed at protecting that reputation (1.2). It declares that those members of our academic community who create and maintain local content must actively take responsibility for it, and for the manner in which that content is presented (1.1). Hence, all computer use and local content must comply with UCO's Computer and Network Management and Use Policy. ³

2. The Heart of the Matter: Web Content

Since UCO "extends the privilege of using UCO computing resources" to members of its community (1.4), each creator of local content (according to 1.1, 2.2, and 3.2) should assume personal responsibility for the page's accuracy, quality, up-to-date-ness, for its development with licensed software and its consumption of an appropriately modest quantity of system resources, for its consistency with (i) the University's mission (e.g., that it not be used for personal business or advertising) and (ii) policies (concerning, e.g., confidentiality, unauthorized use of passwords and computers, and, as added in 3.1, all of the policies governing print publications, including nondiscrimination and academic freedom), and with (iii) local, (iv) state, and (v) federal laws. Hence, those publishing information should at least be aware of:

• Copyright law, "fair use" and intellectual property rights. ⁴
• Federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act
• Federal Computer Abuse Amendment Act
• Federal Electronics Communication Privacy Act
• State of Oklahoma Open Meeting Law and other statutes
• UCO Computer and Network Management and Use Policies and Procedures

Forbidden Content
UCO's local content creators cannot include content in violation of the above, nor ought they link to sites (known to be) in violation of the above. Although content creators might legitimately link to commercial sites, it would be illegitimate if they stood to gain financially from such linking.

Required Content
The name and e-mail address of the responsible entity (person, department, college, or organization), and the date of the last update must appear at the end of every UCO affiliated page (2.3.1-2.3.4).

• "Professional homepages" contain content pertinent to an individual faculty or staff member's professional role in the University community (non-professional information and links are inappropriate). Such homepages may be linked to appropriate (academic or administrative) unit homepages (1.4.1). Note: The Guide's language does not require a link to UCO's homepage, or even the display UCO's name or logo.
• "Individual homepages" are created by students as part of class assignments.
  These must:
  • be removed upon completion of a degree program or withdrawal from UCO (1.4.2),
  • display the disclaimer, "The views and opinions expressed on this page are strictly those of the author"; (2.3.4), and
  • not display UCO logos or symbols (2.3.4).
  
  
• Departmental and (e.g., student) Organization homepages should avoid storing data redundantly within the network; instead link to appropriate University homepages which "cover building hours, course schedules and registration, admission policies, and other information related to institutional mission and purpose" (these are the responsibility of the Offices of Information Technology and University Relations) (2.1). Department and organization pages may display UCO's logo (available on the Office of University Relations' homepage) (2.3.1); and they should display the Department or unit's physical location, telephone number, and fax number, as well as the Department Chair/Director name and email address. These pages must:
  • display the university's full name (2.3.1), and,
  • be linked to the UCO homepage via existing College or unit links (2.3.2);
  • Student Organizations will need permission form the office of the Vice President for Student Services in order to have web pages hosted on University servers. (Hosting by College servers does not require such permission.) However, failure to maintain up-to-date information may result in removal of links from University pages (3.3 – ‘3.1' is misprinted in original).

Consequences of Violation
Breach of acceptable use may result in "loss of privilege" to use UCO's computer resources. Violation of internal policy or external law (e.g., concerning copyrights or obscenity) may lead to student expulsion or employee termination (3.4 – ‘3.2' is misprinted in original).

3. Miscellanea: Assistance and Access

Members of the University community without available Departmental or College support for development and maintenance of web pages can request assistance from the Offices of Information Technology or University Relations (2.1); they will provide help if their human and computer resources permit it (1.5).

While local content may be publicly available (1.4.4), it is also possible to publish content on the intranet, so that it is available only to community members with valid UCO intranet access (1.4.3).

4. About the Document of Which This is a Summary

• title: "University of Central Oklahoma Principles and Guidelines For Use of The World Wide Web (Web)"
• update schedule: annual, by IT and University Relations (1.6)
• URL(s): http://www.ucok.edu/html/web_policy.html http://libweb.ucok.edu:10020/UCO Website Policy.htm
• version: revision of May 1, 1998

Thanks are due Sandra Thomas, Assistant to the Chief Technology Officer and Educational Technology Consultant, for explaining some of the language of the original document to Brendan Lalor on 7 March 2001.

¹ This document communicates roles, responsibilities, and procedures for students, faculty, and staff involved in establishing or maintaining content available on computer networks operated by the University or any of its Colleges, academic, or administrative units. This includes content available through the on-campus intranet and through the internet at large. All such content stored on University machines will be referred to here as 'local content'.

² This document summarizes the University's longer document, "University of Central Oklahoma Principles and Guidelines For Use of The World Wide Web (Web)," to which we shall herein refer as 'the Guide'. See section 4, below.

³ This document is available at UCO Web Guidelines.

⁴ There is as yet no University policy on the intellectual property rights of faculty to the web content they develop.