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Responsible Use of Electronic Communications

North Country Community College provides electronic mail services to students and encourages appropriate use of e-mail. However, responsibilities are attached to its use. By using College e-mail, students agree to adhere to the College's e-mail policy as stated below.

E-mail accounts are automatically created for students of the College when they register for classes are maintained 60 days past the last date of attendance. Students are encouraged to make extensive use of e-mail to communicate with their instructors, support staff and fellow students. E-mail use by students over the campus network is a privilege and is accompanied by a corresponding responsibility to use it in an appropriate manner, i.e. to comply with all applicable local, state and federal laws and with other College policies.

Student account information is assigned upon a student's initial registration for classes. This account is maintained as long as the student remains registered. Students will be notified by mail of their account user name and password. Lost or forgotten user names and/or passwords will be reissued only upon presentation by the student of two (2) forms of identification, one form being a picture ID. This may be done at the Records Office in Saranac Lake or at the Malone or Ticonderoga Branch Campus office.

All e-mail correspondence conducted using the College's resources are part of the College's e-mail system and are the property of North Country. The College treats individual communications as confidential and will only examine or disclose their contents

• When authorized by the owner, or
• When required to evaluate and/or adjust the e-mail system to ensure effective operation; or
• When directed by an authorization of a College Officer. Such actions will be taken when there is evidence or reasonable information that inappropriate use of computing and networking facilities and resources is taking place, when situations involve health or safety of people or property, and when required by legal obligations or responsibilities.

However, e-mail is inherently an insecure communications medium, and no one should expect its confidentiality to be guaranteed. In general, e-mail is not appropriate for transmitting sensitive or confidential information.

All use of e-mail will be consistent with other College policies, including the North Country Community College Responsible Use of Electronic Communications and the Code of Conduct. If there is reason to believe that a student's e-mail account is being used in a violation of law or College policy, or if an account is used in a way that threatens to disrupt service to other users, the College may restrict, suspend or disable that account's access to e-mail services and/or network access until the College is assured that the illegal or disruptive use of the account will cease. Complaints brought by another user will result in a thorough investigation by College personnel.

Appropriate use should always be legal, ethical, reflect academic honesty, reflect College standards and show restraint in the consumption of shared resources. It should demonstrate respect for intellectual property, ownership of data, system security mechanisms and individual rights to privacy and freedom from intimidation, harassment and unwarranted annoyance. It shall not be used to conduct private business operations not connected with College projects nor for electoral or issue-oriented political campaigning. North Country reserves the right to refuse mail and other connections from outside hosts that send unsolicited, mass or commercial messages, or messages that appear to contain viruses to College and other users, and to filter, refuse or discard such messages.

Appropriate use includes the following practices:

• Identify yourself clearly and accurately in e-mail. Concealing or misrepresenting your name or affiliation is not appropriate.
• Take care to avoid disseminating computer viruses or other programs that may damage or place excessive load on e-mail or other College resources.
• Nuisance e-mail and other on-line messages such as chain letters, obscene, pornographic, harassing or other unwelcome messages are prohibited.
• Unsolicited e-mail messages to multiple users are prohibited unless explicitly approved by the Office of the Dean of Academic Affairs.
• Treat e-mail messages and attachments as private and confidential, unless the author(s) make them explicitly available to others. Users should not view, read, listen to, copy, change, execute or delete another user's information without that user's or the owner's permission.
• Respect the copyright, patent protection and authorizations, intellectual property rights, contracts and/or licenses of others, including the College. Violators of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act who have illegally shared copyrighted files are subject to civil penalties of between $750 and $150,000 per song.  As of 2008, past pre-litigation settlements offered by copyright owners such as the Recording industry Association of America (RIAA) have ranged from $3,000 to $4,000 and up. Additionally, a court may, in its discretion, grant the copyright owner reasonable attorney fees.  Although prosecution of students for this type of file sharing is extremely rare, 17 USC § 506 lays out criminal penalties for intentional copyright infringement which can include fines and jail time.

E-mail is an official method of communication at North Country Community College, and the College may send official communications to students via e-mail. Students are responsible for the consequences of not reading College-related communications sent to their official e-mail account in a timely fashion.

Students are expected to check their College e-mail frequently to insure receipt of College-related communications. It is recommended that students check their North Country e-mail account daily. Sharing accounts or passwords is not permitted.

Students are also responsible for maintaining their account by not keeping large files or large amounts of e-mail. The College is not responsible for official communications that are lost due to lack of e-mail account maintenance. To ensure continued availability of disk space, e-mail messages should be kept no longer than 30 days. All e-mail messages that need to be kept for a longer period should be printed or forwarded to a students' external e-mail service (Yahoo. Hotmail, etc.).

Students may also use external e-mail services such as Yahoo and Hotmail in addition to their North Country e-mail address. Students may choose to forward their College e-mail to such a service but do so at their own risk. Such services are often subject to limited account space, delays and failures in receiving e-mail due to heavy loads and network instability.

Students are responsible for reading official College e-mail, regardless of which other e-mail services they may use. The College is not responsible for the handling of e-mail by outside vendors or unofficial servers. North Country strongly recommends that students use the College's e-mail services to regularly read their e-mail.

Policy Approved by NCCC Board of Trustees, 1/20/2009