PortalPoliciesProcedures

= Portal Policies and Procedures = = CHARTER = toc

= **Portal Objective** = = = The **MyStevenson.edu** portal is a centralized resource designed to foster communication and collaboration throughout the Stevenson University community. Supporting administrative and academic needs of the institution, the portal contains up-to-date information, news, and University-specific administrative materials. It is the main vehicle for the SU community to use to access such features as e-mail and BlackBoard. These resources are available for faculty, staff, and students, and other authorized users to accomplish duties consistent with the Stevenson mission.

=**3. Policies and Procedures**=

**Definitions**

 * Constituencies: Primary designations for portal users reflect these roles at the University - student, faculty or staff.
 * Audiences - Subsets or cross groups of portal users that have a common interest
 * Student: Undergraduate and graduate students taking courses at Stevenson for the current semester. Students includes on-campus and online learning options.
 * Faculty: Individuals who teach students, either in the classroom or online, both on a full-time and adjunct basis.
 * Staff: Individuals who work at Stevenson who are not faculty. This includes all administration and all staff, both exempt and non-exempt.
 * Portal Planning Team: The cross-departmental group of employees charged with setting up the portal.

Access
All Stevenson students, faculty and staff will be granted access to the portal at the time they join the Stevenson community. Individuals will be assignend to a primary constituency based on their role at Stevenson. Secondary constituencies may also be assigned at this or a later time if roles are added or changed. Access to MyStevenson will end when someone is no longer a member of the greater Stevenson community (or when their user name and passwords expire according to the IT policy for the University).

The **MyStevenson** portal's core constituencies of faculty, staff, and students access the portal in this manner:
 * //Faculty and staff:// Access to identical home pages, with access to specific applications as defined by the faculty or staff role.
 * //Students:// Access to a student portal home page.
 * //Other:// Access by faculty and staff to the student portal home page from their portal page.

Permissions

 * __Customization:__ At the onset, customization by users is not an option. In the near future, customization of each home page will be available.
 * __Locked content:__ At the onset, content is locked. In the near future, users will be able to modify their web parts.

The initial phase of the portal project will have the Portal Planning Team as the audience/users. No separate audiences will be delineated during the initial phase of portal creation. Team sites and audiences will be addressed in later phases of the portal project.


 * //My.Stevenson.edu:// The overall name of the portal, this name is used on all communications related to internal policies, HR news, payroll, and accounts. For example, My.Stevenson: HR Handbook
 * //Main Categories:// Brevity matters. Overall category names should be one to two subject words, and a preposition or connecting word as needed. For example, Services for Employees, HR News, HR Policies, In the News
 * //Subheads:// Under the main category, subheads should state the subject clearly, with a minimum of words.
 * //Descriptions:// As needed, two to three sentences may be needed to clarify a subject or category. Again, brevity matters.
 * //Constituency Page names:// Faculty and staff portal page names will be defined as www.my.stevenson.edu\faculty and www.mystevenson.edu\staff. The single page will **not** be named: www.my.stevenson.edu\facultystaff.

Approvals
All initial content must be reviewed and approved by the Portal Planning Committee. Any new content on the portal, submitted after the initial launch, must be approved by the appropriate portal administrator.

Content in the portal includes the following: change of a web part, announcement update, posting, new information page, or a wiki. Initially, content changes are performed solely by an administrator. After delegation of rights, a head of a department, or team site will be responsible for changes. For approvals, workflows can be set up to address content changes that need to be approved by an administrator prior to publication.

Graphics
The "look and feel" for all portal sites and pages must match the external Stevenson website in terms of design, use of typefaces, and navigation tools.

For the initial phase of the portal, a set of information sites will be designated by the Portal Planning Committee. Content for these information sites will be developed by the individual departments and will be approved by the Portal Planning Committee before being integrated into the portal.

All new information sites must be approved by the Portal Planning Committee.

A Web Part makes certain data or content available on a web page and makes it possible for users to use or modify that data. Initially, the MyStevenson portal will use web parts only from the 28 predefined Datatel Portal Web Parts.

New Web Parts will be considered for development only after the portal is deployed campus wide. New web part names must be be approved by the charter committee.

**Content Ownership**
All content must have a designated owner who is accountable for the content. That owner is responsible for reviewing the applicable content every 30 days to ensure timeliness, accuracy, and relevancy to the portal and Stevenson community.

**Acceptable Use Policy**
In support of Stevenson University’s educational mission, the Office of Information Technology provides computing, networking, and information resources to the University community. The University expects all members of its community to use the portal in a responsible manner. MyStevenson is to be used to conduct the business and mission of Stevenson University. It is not to be used for personal announcements or information not directly related to Stevenson University. The University reserves the right to limit access to the MyStevenson portal through University-owned or other computers, and to remove or limit access to material posted on the portal and on University-owned computers. By creating the MyStevenson portal, the University is creating a public forum, and retains the right to limit access, and postings to the portal system.

**Rights and Responsibilities**
Computers and networks can provide access to resources on and off campus, as well as the ability to communicate with other users worldwide. Users have these responsibilities:
 * Respect the rights and privacy of other users and the integrity of the systems and related physical resources
 * Follow all relevant laws, regulations, and contractual obligations, including policies and obligations of organizations with whom SU contracts for computing, networking, and information products and services used by the Stevenson community.
 * Users of the portal shall not abridge the rights of copyright owners.
 * All faculty, staff, and students who use the MyStevenson portal are required to use and maintain a stevenson.edu emailaddress. This is the only e-mail address that will be used for official communication about the portal with faculty, staff, and students.

Users have a responsibility to respect the privacy of others. Violations of this responsibility include, but are not limited to:
 * Using a computer account that you are not authorized to use. Obtaining a password for a computer account other than your own, or giving your password to anyone else.
 * Using the Campus Network to gain unauthorized access to any computer system.
 * Attempting to circumvent data protection schemes or exploit security flaws.
 * Masking or forging the identity of an account, individual, or machine.
 * Attempting to monitor or tamper with another user's electronic communications, or reading, copying, changing, or deleting another user's files or software without the explicit agreement of the owner.
 * Accessing clearly confidential files that may be inadvertently publicly readable.
 * Accessing confidential information about a person (such as their educational records) without their consent or other authorization.

Users are expected to follow acceptable standards of ethics and conduct in their electronic interactions with others. Inappropriate conduct includes:  The University reserves the right to monitor and record on an exception basis, the usage of all computing resources when prohibited, threatening, or abusive behavior has been observed or reported, whether observed by another user or by IT professionals as part of normal system maintenance. The University may use information gained in this way in disciplinary or criminal proceedings. An individual's access to computer resources may be suspended immediately upon the discovery of a possible violation of these policies. Violation of these policies will be reported to the appropriate area for possible disciplinary action. Offenses in violation of local, state, or federal laws will result in the immediate loss of computing privileges, and will be reported to the appropriate University and law enforcement authorities.
 * Using electronic mail to harass or threaten others, or to send inappropriate mass mailings, such as repeated, unwanted email to another user; initiating or propagating electronic chain letters; sending multiple mailings to news groups, mailing lists, or individuals (e.g., spamming, flooding, or bombing).
 * Posting materials on electronic bulletin boards, or otherwise transmitting or reproducing materials that are slanderous or defamatory, or that otherwise violate existing laws or the University's codes of conduct.
 * Displaying obscene, lewd, or sexually harassing images or text in a public computer facility or location that can be in view of others, or the unsolicited distribution of these materials.

This University wide portal policy is intended to establish the proper use of Stevenson’s portal communication resources by students, faculty, and staff. The University provides portal access to all students, full and part-time faculty members, and staff. It is expected that everyone who has an SU e-mail account will check it daily, using the portal. Official University communications will only be sent to Stevenson University e-mail accounts and through the Stevenson portal.


 * Stevenson University Electronic Distribution Policy **

All requests to post information on the portal are sent to the Marketing and Public Relations Office to the attention of the Marketing Manager, Internal Communications. (specifics to be determined). The following exceptions are allowed under this policy:
 * Office of Student Affairs – Authorized to distribute to the student constituency group. The Dean of Students is responsible for sending out student related notices or other critical information to students. The Director and Assistant Director of Student Activities are responsible for sending out all information related to student and campus events and activities.
 * Registrar’s Office – Authorized to distribute to constituent faculty and student groups. Designated representatives in the Registrar’s Office will send out all information to the students and faculty on a variety of important issues related to classes and class schedules.
 * Financial Aid Office – Authorized to distribute to the constituent student group. Designated representatives in the Financial Aid office will distribute messages to the student group related to student financial aid issues and scholarship opportunities.
 * Dean of Academic Affairs/Executive Committee of the Faculty Council – Authorized to distribute to all lists and all groups. The Dean of Academic Affairs and the Executive Committee of Faculty Council can communicate important information to all portal groups and e-mail lists related to Faculty Council and Middle States re-accreditation. The Dean of Academic Affairs and the Executive Committee of Faculty Council can also communicate important news items and information updates to all Faculty lists.
 * Facilities – Authorized to distribute to all lists and portal groups concerning facility emergencies.
 * The Office of Information Technology - Authorized to distribute to all lists and portal groups information regarding outages (planned or unplanned) associated with campus technology.
 * Office of the President – Authorized to distribute to all lists and portal groups.

Systems developed or technologies used to bypass these guidelines are also a violation of this policy. All students, faculty, and staff are expected to comply with this policy. Questions about the portal policy should be directed to The Portal Policies and Procedures Committee.

**Disaster Recovery**
Portal recovery must provide a full recovery from last backup. Recovery of lost sites will be the current state of the site at the time of the last backup.

**Hardware**
Access to and governance of hardware is subject to existing Stevenson IT policies. Hardware will be kept up-to-date with service packs and security updates. All hardware must adhere to policies created by portal administrators and the portal team.

**Changes and Additions**
All changes must be communicated to the portal project manager. These changes include, but are not limited to, changes to infrastructure components, software application, web applications or web parts.

**3.2.1 Access and Permissions Procedures**
When an individual joins the Stevenson University Community the appropriate department will assign their primary constituency as student, faculty or staff in Datatel If appropriate, a secondary constituency will be assigned at this time.

Deviations from the overall look and feel of any portal page or site must be requested in writing. Requests should be submitted to the Portal Planning Committee and include the person or department requesting the change, a description or picture of what the changed site or page will look like, and clearly stated reasons for the needed change. No changes can be made to the look of a page prior to approval from the Portal Planning Committee.

Any substantial content changes to portal pages or sites must be requested in writing. Requests must be submitted to the Portal Planning Committee and include the department making the request, content changes, who will be responsible for the content. No content changes to pages or sites may be made prior to approval from the Portal Planning Committee.

New web part suggestions must be submitted in writing to the Portal Planning Committee. Requests should identify what the new web part should contain or do, a name for the web part, content, designated audience, frequency of updating and the owner of the web part content.

Definitions

 * //Event:// A date-specific activity held at a certain point in time at a specific location.
 * //Announcement:// A point of information that a group or groups need to know.
 * //News:// Updated information about a University-related subject or an outside subject that has relevance to the University community.
 * //Reference/resource:// Administrative information related to a University function or role, i.e., the Human Resources Department, the library.

Content Creation

 * __Events and Announcements:__ Submit one of two ways -- through Stevenson University e-mail to the Marketing Manager, (eschuman@stevenson.edu), or through the MyStevenson portal link. I tems must contain the following information: start/end date for event or activity, description of event or activity, location, time, place, contact person, rsvp or cost if applicable, audience - who needs to know about this event or activity.
 * __Resource/reference:__ Submit approved copy through the MyStevenson portal link.


 * __Event Announcements__ run in date order upon receipt. For example, one may submit a March event in January and the event will be posted. It will, however, be posted to run in date order, after Jan., Feb., events in the list. Announcements will remain "live" until the event has occurred.
 * __Announcements__ run immediately upon receipt and will remain "live" until the announcement is no longer valid. All announcements must be submitted with an end date.
 * __Resource/reference__ run upon submission and remain "live." The author, however, is required to renew the information on the site every 30 days to ensure its accuracy, timeliness, and relevance.
 * __New event/announcement/resource items__ are marked "new" for two weeks from date of posting. After two weeks, the items are placed into the appropriate archive.
 * __News__ runs in date submitted/posted order. It remains "live" for two weeks and then is placed into an archive.

Site creation
//Team sites are not in scope for the pilot phase.// //Information sites are in scope for the pilot phase.//

Information site requests must be submitted in writing to the Portal Planning Committee. Requests should contain the department or person requesting the site, specific content for the site, an explanation of the need for the site, and who will be responsible for site content.

**3.2.3 Use Procedures**
All content should have a designated owner who is accountable for content. The owner is responsible for reviewing content every 30 days to ensure timeliness, accuracy, and relevance.

**Emergency Notification**
In the event of a non-scheduled outage of the portal, the system administrator will be notified via e-mail about the severity of the issue. The minimum amount of downtime will be determined by the importance of the portal and its severity in comparison to other critical systems at Stevenson University. In order to take down the portal for maintenance, procedures based on the existing IT protocol will be followed.

**OIT System Maintenance Policy**
In an effort to minimize system downtime and deliver high quality systems performance, the Office of Information Technology has created two System Maintenance windows. The hours between 5 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. on Friday mornings and 6 a.m. to noon on Sunday mornings will be used for system maintenance and system upgrades. Maintenance includes, but is not limited to, adding, removing or replacing hardware on servers, bringing new servers online, applying software updates to servers, applying security updates, troubleshooting software, or installing new software. The timing windows will be used only when necessary. All outages and affected systems will be announced in advance.

If the portal needs to be taken offline for a period of time, an e-mail communication will be sent to all users before the scheduled portal downtime.

**Portal Updates**
Hardware/Software upgrades will be performed during campus down times, i.e., holidays, weekends and possibly late at night to cause the least disruption of service for users.