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Policy on Acceptable Use of Electronic Information Resources

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Adopted October 1995
Revised February 2001
Revised September 2002
by the Committee on Network-Based Information Systems
of the University Committee on Information Technology

The Grounds-Wide Information System (GWIS) is an on-line information system that provides access to services and resources available to the University community. GWIS provides electronic access to University-related information by integrating these resources in a single networked system.(See the Appendix below for a description of other electronic information systems at the University.)

Information may be published on GWIS by academic and administrative units of the University, programs sponsored by academic and administrative units, student organizations recognized as Contracted Independent Organizations (CIOs), related foundations, and organizations whose membership is primarily composed of University students, staff, faculty or alumni and whose purpose is consistent with the University mission. In addition, individuals who have agreed to abide by the conditions for holding or administering a computing account in the University domain (virginia.edu) may link materials of their choice to the system.

Materials electronically published within the virginia.edu domain must be the intellectual property of the institutional, departmental, or individual information providers, who are responsible for the content of their postings. Information providers must comply with copyright and fair use laws and all relevant University policies, including those governing use of computing resources, nondiscrimination, and student and employee conduct. Each GWIS document must clearly identify the responsible department or individual. The University is not responsible or liable for material distributed on its servers by individuals.

GWIS supports the following two functions:

1. Electronic delivery of information of interest to the University community.
2. A gateway to on-line systems and services located within the University and throughout the world. GWIS provides a single framework for users to find and use University information.

Such information, at a minimum, includes:

1. An access mechanism to the University's library systems, including bibliographic data bases, literature stored a electronic texts, and numeric information
2. Official University documents and publications, including catalogs, course and advising information, University publications and directories, policies and procedures manuals.
3. Departmental information such as course syllabuses, guides, calendars, and announcements.
4. University academic, social, and athletic calendars.
5. A gateway to on-line systems and services outside of the University, integrating existing resources residing at institutions and facilities beyond the University, including other library catalogs, other campus-wide information systems, electronic texts and references not available at the University, and discipline-specific data bases.

In establishing, extending, and maintaining GWIS, it is important to ensure that it:

1. Conforms to the computing directions articulated by the University Committee on Information Technology (UCIT).
2. Acknowledges emerging standards of similar systems at other institutions of higher education;
3. Encourages widespread user involvement in its development, expansion, and use.
4. Supports access to emerging data types such as graphics, audio, and video.

Information on GWIS may be contributed by a wide variety of existing information providers as well as by new information providers. Updates to information, text, and data available through GWIS are maintained by the department providing the information to GWIS. Within the University's decentralized computing environment, the GWIS access strategy permits individual departments to maintain autonomy over their own services and information while responding to University-wide needs by working within a common electronic framework.

A Network-Based Information Services Subcommittee (NBIS) is appointed by the UCIT to serve as an editorial board overseeing the availability and use of GWIS. In general, this board does not approve individual items in GWIS, but it does:

1. Approve the awarding of a directory to and/or the linking of a home page by organizations and individuals eligible to do so.
2. Approve categories of information placed on the GWIS.
3. Serve as an appeal board for determining whether material placed on GWIS is or is not appropriate.
4. Serve as the first step in the appeal process regarding retention of GWIS privileges. Decisions by the NBIS editorial board to revoke access to GWIS may be appealed to the Chief Information Officer. Students and student organizations are, in addition, subject to the Standards of Conduct in their use of GWIS.

All information providers are subject to the following acceptable use guidelines:

1. Any use of GWIS for illegal, inappropriate, or obscene purposes, or in support of such activities, is prohibited. Illegal activities shall be defined as a violation of local, state, and/or federal laws. Inappropriate use shall be defined as a violation of the intended use of the network, and/or purpose and goal. Obscene activities shall be defined as a violation of generally accepted social standards for use of a publicly-owned and operated communication vehicle. Individuals who wish to address an apparent violation should communicate with the department or individual who posted the material or may consult with ITC, the student Judiciary Committee, faculty or other employee disciplinary systems, or law enforcement agencies, as appropriate.
2. Consistent with University and state policy on the appropriate use of equipment, the University's Web site (signified by the address "virginia.edu" or within the range of Internet protocol addresses assigned to the University of Virginia) cannot be used for commercial, non-mission-related purposes.

   In practice, this means that advertising space cannot be sold at any level of the Web site. "Advertising" includes any situation in which the University or one of its units receives payment in exchange for a link or brand placement on a University Web page.

   Links to commercial vendors may be made only in the following situations:

   • The logo or graphic represents licensed software on which a core function of the page is based, e.g., Netscape, Adobe Acrobat Reader, RealAudio, VeriSign.
   • The logo or link is to a vendor or other entity with a separately contracted relationship to provide services to the University, e.g., ARAmark, Fidelity Insurance, Nike.
   • Within a unit's Web site, a logo or link is displayed at the second level or below to acknowledge external support of the unit's mission-related activities. Such logos or links are deemed to be recognition of corporate or other external sponsorship; payment may not be accepted for that link or logo. Examples of pages that might include such acknowledgments include University Career Services and those of sponsored academic activities, such as the Center for Governmental Studies.
   • The text link provides information for educational or other mission-related purposes and the University has received no consideration for incorporating that link.

   In all cases, the design of departmental or unit pages that incorporate commercial links must be consistent with established graphic and placement standards for University Web pages. (See Guidelines for Web Design, http://www.virginia.edu/webpagestandards.html.) For example, commercial logos or display material may not be placed in the "banner" area, roughly the top quarter of a page.

   Links to sponsors or other corporate recognition on a unit's home page (i.e., the third level off the University home page) will not be allowed except under special circumstances considered on a case-by-case basis by the N-BIS editorial board. Such examples might be the University Bookstore or the University Press selling its own merchandise or U.Va. Athletics.

   University departments or units with Web sites based on non-University servers must comply with the terms of this policy in order to be linked from the University's home page structure.

3. No use of GWIS shall disrupt the use of the network for other users.
4. From time to time, the University's Chief Information Officer or the NBIS editorial board will make decisions on whether specific uses of GWIS are consistent with this policy. The CIO shall remain the final authority on use of the GWIS and the issuance of user accounts.

 

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Appendix

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There are three electronic information delivery systems at the University.

1. Electronic mail: designed for delivery of electronic messages among individuals.
2. USENET News: a news and conference system designed for public discussions and conferences.
3. Grounds-Wide Information System (GWIS): designed for delivery of public information.

Each type of system addresses a different need. Electronic mail is individually addressed and it is interactive in the sense that a reply to the originator of the message is possible. The electronic news and conference system is public, and it also provides a means for readers to post responses. GWIS provides access to public information in both gopher-based (text only) and World Wide Web (multimedia) formats; the latter allows responses by the reader.

Type of System	Public Information	Response by Reader
E-mail	No	Yes
Conference	Yes	Yes
GWIS	Yes	Yes*
* in WWW format only