Now allow us to be serious for a moment, while we explain the acceptable use policy to you. By creating an account on the StudentWeb system, you are agreeing to abide by this policy. Tulane University's Policy for Student Publications Tulane is committed to the concept of free expression of ideas, according to the Code of Student Conduct. The following guidelines are based on state and federal court decisions that have interpreted the First Amendment in relation to public universities. However, although Tulane is a private university and no legal precedent has been set at this time for such universities, the administrators have established guidelines safeguarding true academic freedom, freedom of the student press and education. Tulane students and journalists may enjoy all the rights afforded by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution with regard to freedom of speech; however these rights must not directly conflict with the educational mission of Tulane University. These rights are given to all students with the understanding that they adhere to the following guidelines. If the members of the student media fail to follow these guidelines, the University will take disciplinary action. Responsibilities of Students Students are responsible for the content of their publications: Prohibited Material Obscenity Students cannot publish or distribute material that is obscene. Obscene is defined as material that a) the average person, under contemporary community standards, would find the publication as a whole to appeal to the prurient interest in sex, and b) depicts or describes in an offensive way sexual conduct such as specific sexual acts (normal or perverted), masturbation, excretory functions and lewd exhibition of the genitals, and c) as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific merit Libel Students cannot publish or distribute material that is libelous. Libelous is defined as provably false, unprivileged statements that do demonstrated injury to an individual's or a business' reputation within the community. Facts about libel include: a) If the aggrieved party is a public figure* or official**, then the aggrieved party has the burden of proving that the false statement was published with malicious intent. In other words, the public figure would have to show that the student journalist knew the statement was false and published it without attempting to verify the truthfulness of the statement. A public figure is a person who either intentionally seeks the public's attention or is well known because of his achievements. A public official is a person who holds an elected or appointed public office. b) If the agrieved party is a private citizen, then the aggrieved party has the burden of proving that the false statement was published willfully or negligently. He would have to show that the student journalist failed to exercise the care that a reasonably prudent person would exercise. c) Under the "fair comment rule" a student is free to express an opinion or on matters of public interest. For example,students may criticize the performance of professors,administrators, University officials and staff. Disruption Students cannot publish or distribute materials which will cause a substantial disruption of University activities. Disruption is defined as student rioting, unlawful seizure of property, destruction of property or substantial student participation in a University boycott, walk-out or other related form of activity. Guidelines on material causing disruption include: a) Whether a student publication was disruptive or not depends upon the context of the distribution and the content of the material.Consideration should be given to the University's previous experience with the content of similar material, with dealing with and supervising students, current events as influences on students' attitudes and behavior, and instances of actual or threatened disruption before or at the time of the dissemination of the student publication in question. b) University officials should act to protect the safety of advocates of unpopular viewpoints. c) University activities are those educational, student programs sponsored by the University such as classes,library activities, official assemblies and similar gatherings,University athletic events, concerts and plays. Legal Advice If the student editor, student editorial staff, faculty advisor or Advisor to the Student Media decides material proposed for publication may be obscene, libelous or cause a substantial disruption in University activities, he/they should seek legal advice from an attorney. The student media or its advisors may consult University Counsel or may employ the free legal services of the Student Press Law Center (703 807-1904). The final decision of whether legally questionable material should be published will be in the hands of Student Affairs. Protected Speech Protected speech for student publications consists of: Speech that is of the minority, controversial, extremist, distasteful, unpopular or unpleasant Material relating to sexual issues including information concerning birth control and sexually-transmitted diseases as well as others Occasional use of indecent, vulgar, profane language Criticism of University policies, practices or performance of professors, University officials,the University itself or of any public officials Speech which merely advocates illegal conduct as long as it is not directed toward or cause imminent unlawful action Publication or distribution of non-prohibited material written by nonstudents Advertising accepted by the student newspaper, yearbook and magazines that is in compliance with accepted advertising policies Endorsements of candidates for student office or for public office at any level Advertising Tulane Computing resources may not be used to promote a business's products, services, or company. Information, identification, and home pages may NOT include any advertising in which some person or group profits monetarily. General TCS Policy Tulane Computing Services (TCS), Tulane University's central computing agency, maintains a computer system and network connectivity for faculty, students, and staff in pursuit of the academic missions of the university, and for staff to work to support these endeavors. TCS also works with faculty and students to encourage excellence in scholarship and education through the effective and innovative use of computers and information technology. The computer system and network are shared by all members of Tulane's community. Because it is a shared resource, individuals should use the system responsibly in pursuit of university-related functions, and in doing so, are not to infringe on the rights, integrity, or privacy of others or their data. The ability to use the system and network in no way exempts anyone from the necessities of ethical behavior and responsible use in the university and academic communities. User responsibilities Use of a shared computer system and network carries certain obligations. To ensure that the system is responsive to the needs of the user community, and to protect the resources of both yourself and others who use the system, you should abide by the following guidelines. Responsible use of computing and network resources. You must not obstruct any others' work by using unnecessarily large amounts of system resources (such as disk space, output devices, CPU time, and network bandwidth) or deliberately cause any machine to crash or shut down. You must be aware of the finite capacity of systems, and limit your own use so as not to interfere unreasonably with the activity of other users. Respect for others' resources. Data, software, and computer capacity have value that must be respected, and this value must be respected and preserved by each and every individual user. You are not to give away your userid and password, for any reason, or under any circumstances. You are not to use someone else's account, either with or without permission. Individual accounts cannot be transferred to or used by another individual. Attempts to gain access to any account not belonging to you or to a system on which you are not an authorized user will be treated as a violation of University policy, and your computing privileges will be revoked. Respect for system security. It is your responsibility to protect the integrity and privacy of the data in your account. You, and you alone, are responsible for all matters pertaining to the proper use of your account; this includes choosing safe passwords and ensuring that file protections are set correctly. Respect for the ownership of proprietary software. You are not to make unauthorized copies of licensed software for your own use, even when that software is not physically protected against copying. You are given access to the computing system and network because it is a tool to help you meet your academic goals, but this access is a privilege, not a right. Preventing others from satisfying their academic goals by using the system irresponsibility is not permitted. A good way to determine if you're using the system responsibly is to ask yourself whether or not what you're doing is in pursuit of academic endeavors. Examples of irresponsible use of the system include, and are not limited to: playing games for non-academic purposes, such as MUD (multi-user dungeon), etc. using IRC (inter-relay chat) resources for non-academic purposes posting non-academic and/or inappropriate material to Usenet, which waste bandwidth and disk space using large amounts of disk space to store files not related to your academic pursuits executing programs which have no useful purpose and only tax the system. TCS will hold responsible the holder of any account through which security violations or irresponsible use occurs. TCS also reserves the right to withhold computing privileges from those who do not abide by the intent of this policy document. Violations of this policy by students shall be treated as violations of the Code of Student Conduct and will be referred to the Student Affairs Office for handling. studentweb administrator responsibilities Studentweb is run by unpaid student volunteers. There is no guarantee that the studentweb server will be active and accessible at any given time. There is no guarantee that any data you place on studentweb will remain there. It is suggested that you keep a local copy of any files you upload. There is no guarantee that studentweb staff will be available to provide support at any given time. A teacher assigning you a web project that involves studentweb does not make the studentweb staff any more responsible for the functioning of the server.