Davidson College encourages the appropriate use of electronic resources as per the terms of the  campus policies -- Acceptable Use Agreements, EDUCOM Code, Administrative Data Security Policy, LAN Technology Policies and Procedures, Copyright Compliance and Laws Acts and other college policies published on the ITS and Human Resources websites.

Such electronic resources ("resources") include, among other things:

• College-supplied telephones, cellular phones, pagers, pdas, wireless communication devices, and voicemail facilities;
• College-supplied computers, fax machines, copiers and related equipment;
• College-supplied e-mail facilities; and
• College-supplied network access, including Internet and Extranet facilities.

Access and Use

Access to some or all of these resources is provided by the college to certain designated employees for use in the performance of individual job responsibilities. These resources are an extension of the workplace and, as such, use is subject to this policy and all other applicable college policies.

Employees are further reminded that all communication and information published electronically or otherwise reflects on the college.  Accordingly, all documents, communications, messages or other information created, transmitted, recorded, stored or posted through the use of the college's resources should be done in a professional manner.  Inappropriate or unprofessional use of these resources may damage the college's reputation and, in some cases, create legal liability for the college and the individual employee.

Under no circumstances may an employee use these resources to create, view, transmit, record, store or post a document, voicemail or e-mail or other type of message or data that violates college's policies; including, but not limited to, the college's non-discrimination and non-harassment policy. All forms of such data are prohibited regardless of whether anyone ever sees or knows about the material.

College Ownership and Rights

As per the terms of the Acceptable Use Agreement, “Ownership of the contents of all disk storage on college-owned systems is retained by Davidson College."  Likewise, the college's telephones, communication devices, voicemail facilities, computers and other electronic equipment, e-mail facilities and other electronic resources are owned and controlled by Davidson College. As such, the college, and its designated staff, may inspect and monitor, when necessary as a function of responsible system management or when there is reasonable cause, all files stored on the ITS computers, systems and other college resources.

Although the college does not inspect or monitor computer files, electronic mail or other resources on a regular basis, it does have the right to access and disclose the contents of such resources without consent of the user. The college will do so when it believes it has a legitimate business interest or need, including, but not limited to:

• Responsible maintenance and management of systems.
• To prevent the loss of institutional information.
• Preventing or investigating unauthorized access and system misuse.
• Investigating reports of employee misconduct.
• Complying with legal requests from information (such as subpoenas).
• Emergencies, including but not limited to:
  • Threats to health, safety or campus property.
  • When necessary to protect resources and system accounts and data from damage.
  • When necessary to prevent loss or destruction of files or mail to be seized.
  • Incident to or following a lawful arrest.

Employees and others should have no expectation that any information created, transmitted, recorded, stored or posted on or with the use of the college's resources will remain private.  In addition, due to the nature of the Internet, one cannot assume that any electronic mail or files exchanged over the Internet are private.

Inspection of files and electronic mail and other resources will be carried out in consultation with the employee’s immediate supervisor, the Director of Human Resources, the Executive Director of ITS and the appropriate vice president.