Introduction
The University and the State have clear-cut rules concerning use of facilities. They are to be used solely for business-related activities. At the same time, the University provides personal email addresses and both email and browser facilities to students. These have become multi-use facilities personal use is neither approved nor discouraged.
As members of the department community, we have access with varying degrees of restriction to a vast number of services and much equipment.

Here are some guidelines for the use of these facilities:

1) Telephone use :
The state forbids personal use of telephones. It then proceeds to describe a standard for employee paying compensation for personal use of telephones. All professional use is permitted; however, excess use should be avoided, as it can be a significant drain on departmental and University resources. Calls in the local dialing area, which assist members in the performance of their professional duties, are generally acceptable. Again, reasonable use is a vague but key concept. Out-of-local-area, personal calls should be considered inappropriate except under the most unusual of circumstances. Telephone use, when not explicitly permitted as above, may be justified if a work-around is clearly and significantly disruptive of the user's professional activity. Cell phones, when available, provide a way to make personal calls with minimal disruption of work schedules. Their use is encouraged in cases of doubt.

2) Mail:
Stamps for personal mail should be provided by the sender. Small amounts of personal mail may be sent through the department mail service. Bulk mailings are clearly inappropriate.

3) Computer use :
The department's computer facilities include both common use and personal access machines. It would be both wasteful of personnel resources and counter-productive were we to require that department members restrict their use of departmental computers strictly to professional activities. By use of departmental machines and our network for any purpose, department members gain the skills, which they can later use in their professional roles. Here we provide some guidelines.

Downloading copyrighted material is generally illegal. Downloading large amounts of information overloads University and/or Departmental network facilities, it should only occur as a part of one's professional duties and, even then, only when necessary.

Printing is becoming a major expense for both the University and the Department. Individuals should exercise judgment with regard to printing for research and instructional use. Occasional and minor personal printer use is acceptable under the following circumstances: if it does not detract from professional use and it does not interfere with the work of others. All but the most minor use should be recorded. If necessary, we will institute a fee schedule for non-professional use.

Some further remarks:
It is currently difficult to identify all users of public access labs (such as the lab in MSB 203), though the NetID system may make such identification possible soon. We would much prefer that it not be necessary to limit the utility of those machines by restricting access by unidentified users to only a fixed set of functions. Inappropriate use may force us to institute some restrictions. We will soon have to consider policies for public access computers since USB flash memories and high-capacity, small disk drives will soon make all public access computing facilities targets for inappropriate and, possibly illegal, use. We will soon install a startup screen; it will contain a shortened version of the appropriate use policy and directs the user to a more complete statement.

Related Links:
Connecticut State Telecommunication Network Acceptable Use Policy
State of Connecticut memo on Telephone Usage.
Collected State and University policies