The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences of The University of Iowa recognizes the value and potential of electronic publishing, and so allows and encourages students, staff, and faculty to publish electronic information. Individuals and groups affiliated with the College may publish information in electronic home web pages, personal web pages, ftp documents, electronic mail, or other formats that carry out official University business or otherwise support the University's mission. Contents of all electronic documents must follow University, College, and applicable departmental standards regarding nondiscrimination and offensive material. This includes direct links to other material. In other words, a document that contains no inappropriate information may be considered inappropriate if it contains a direct link to a document with inappropriate material.
Copyright laws apply to electronic publishing as well as to print publishing. Electronic publishers must have permission to publish the information, graphics, or photographs in their electronic documents if they are not the author or creator of such material. Electronic publications are subject to the same University policies and standards as printed publications.
The resources of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences of The University of Iowa may not be used to create electronic documents primarily for personal business or personal gain, except as permitted by other University policies. The University does allow for personal documents that provide information about an individual that is relevant to that individual's role at the University.
The main web page of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences of The University of Iowa will not link directly to personal electronic documents. Departments that publish links to faculty, staff, or student electronic documents must, when requested, deactivate links to objectionable material. The authors of personal electronic documents must follow the guidelines in this policy.
The following statement must appear on all personal web pages (not just personal home web pages) linked below the College home page:
The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author. The contents of this page have not been approved by the College of Liberal Arts or The University of Iowa.
Rationale
The quality of information published electronically by the CLAS Linux Group plays an important role in maintaining the strong reputation and image of the Departments and the University. This policy sets minimal standards that are meant to ensure that information published electronically follows the same high standards as other forms of published information, such as print and audiovisual material.
Furthermore, the College must comply with federal and state laws regarding copyright infringement and Equal Employment Opportunity.
Responsibilities and Rights
Departments will determine when it is useful for individual faculty and staff to have personal web pages primarily for University business.
Departments will determine when it is useful for groups to publish web pages primarily for University business. Owners and publishers of group web pages are also responsible for the web pages to which they link.
The College, the Department Chairs, and the Director of the CLAS Linux Group will determine whether it is appropriate for individuals to be linked from their department's home Web page and are responsible for approving the existence of personal Web pages.
Students and faculty must notify the CLAS Linux Group staff when they graduate, leave school or no longer need their information published.
Students in positions of responsibility that may or may not be paid by the University are subject to a higher level of responsibility for their electronic publications. Teaching and research assistant personal Web pages are subject to the approval of their supervisors.
Publishing Guidelines
The following items are required:
Each department is responsible for its own electronic documents and the electronic documents to which they directly link. Responsibilities include designing, writing, avoiding copyright violations, and keeping the information up to date. The only exception to this is links to personal home web pages.
Each publisher of personal electronic documents is responsible for the documents they publish electronically and the electronic documents to which they directly link. Responsibilities includes designing, writing, avoiding copyright violations and keeping the information up to date.
The following elements must be present on all student personal home web pages:
- The name and email address of the web page owner
- The date of the last update of the page
- The disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author. The contents of this page have not been approved by the College of Liberal Arts or The University of Iowa.
Student personal electronic documents may not contain any symbols of the University, College, or the Departments or any official symbol of the University.
Student personal electronic documents must not imply that the author is an official representative of The University of Iowa.
Copyright laws apply to electronic publishing as well as to print publishing. Electronic publishers must have permission to publish the information, graphics, or photographs in their electronic documents if they are not the author or creator. Photographs of an individual or personal information about an individual must not be included without the permission of the individual.
Electronic documents should not be wasteful of University resources. The use of disk storage for text, graphics, photos, and other information should not exceed the limits suggested by the CLAS Linux Group. Any electronic document or electronic publishing application that negatively impacts or restricts the use of the College's resources for others will be terminated until the resource problem can be solved.
The current limit for the total size of all electronic documents for an individual student is two megabytes (2 M).
Currently, faculty and staff have no limit, but are encouraged to use restraint.
The following items are recommended:
If an author expects certain material to be offensive to other groups or individuals, a secondary electronic document should be created and the material in question should be placed there. The link to the secondary electronic document should be adequately labeled as to the material enclosed. For example:
Reader advisory: Material in the following document may be objectionable to some viewers. Discretion is advised.
It is strongly recommended to include a link at the bottom of personal home pages that allows the user to return to the personal page master page. For example:
Return to <a href="https://cs.uiowa.edu/people"> Computer Science Personal Page Directory. </a>
Anything published electronically should include the date the material was last updated.
Creating a Sponsored Home Web Page
Parties interested in creating a sponsored group home Web page should make a proposal to the Director of the CLAS Linux Group or to the Department Chairperson. If the request is granted, a Web page will be created and ownership will be given to the contact person for the requesting group. Links will be added to the page from an appropriate page somewhere under the Department's home Web page.
Examples of Policy
Following are some brief examples of what is considered illegal or objectionable, and some other examples that may require the removal of an electronic document.
Example #1) Clearly illegal: Any electronic document that promotes the personal financial gain of the author; any electronic document that promotes illegal activities, such as extortion or child pornography. These electronic documents will be immediately removed from any CLAS electronic publication server. In addition, all applicable authorities will be notified, and disciplinary action may be taken.
Example #2) Clearly objectionable: Any electronic document that promotes and displays blatant and active racism and sexism. Such electronic documents violate University policy, such as The University of Iowa Nondiscrimination Statement and The University of Iowa Policy on Acceptable Use of Information Technology Resources.
Example #3) Objectionable by some: Electronic documents that display men or women in nude or semi-nude poses will be found objectionable by some viewers. While not illegal, electronic documents that contain such material will be strongly discouraged due to their negative impact on the image of the College and the University.
Example #4) Excessive resource consumption: If an electronic document is generating so much traffic that it degrades server or network performance, the electronic document will be removed from publication until the problem can be solved. If the electronic document is judged to be unrelated to the educational and research objectives of the College or the relevant department, the owner of the electronic document may be advised to move the electronic document to another server outside of the College.
Definitions
Direct Link
A link that requires only one traversal between two documents.
Electronic Publication; Electronic Document
Web pages, files available for ftp or other transfer, electronic mail messages, and other forms of electronic information.
Link
A one-way hypermedia connection between information on the World Wide Web. Expressed as a "link to" or "link from" a web site or page of information.
Maintainer/Publisher/Information Provider
The person responsible for publishing and updating the information contained in electronic documents.
Personal Electronic Document
An electronic document for an individual faculty member, staff member or student.