School to set policy on computer misconduct

By Tim Cook

It will be at least another month before Ryerson will have a policy on what can — and can’t — be done with school computers.

A subcommittee of academic council has been working on a policy for two years and produced a draft policy on information technology access and acceptable use, which was submitted to academic council Nov. 2.

After hours of debate at the council meeting, the draft was sent back to the committee for clarification.

The draft outlined the level of privacy students, faculty and administration should expect on school’s computers, the unacceptable uses of Ryerson’s information technology resources and the procedure for dealing with student computing misconduct.

Right now, there is only a paragraph in the Student Code of Conduct dealing with how the schools’ computers can be used.

“At the moment, the guidelines are arbitrary,” said Murray Pomerance, chair for the Committee on Information Technology. “With this policy there will be very clear guidelines.”

The council felt the draft was too vague when it came to defining the circumstances where a person’s privacy rights could be breached and the procedure for dealing with investigations.

Pomerance was pleased with the feedback.

“It will provide for a much crisper policy,” he said. “I thought it was really helpful.”

Pomerance said the committee will use the feedback to fine tune the draft over the next month.

It is expected to be re-submitted for approval at the Council’s December meeting.