Employee Handbook Section Thirteen: MISC. INFORMATION

Acceptance of Gifts and Favors by Employees

No employee of the College or member of an employee's immediate family may accept any gift, services, special accommodations or other favors from any supplier or from any other party with which the College does business.

Animals on Campus and in Buildings

With the exception of certified service animals and animals specially approved for the educational purposes of the College, the presence of animals in all college-owned or leased buildings, including residential and non-residential buildings is prohibited, with the possible exception of College rental housing. For rental properties, this issue will be addressed on a case-by-case basis. Dogs and other animals are permitted on campus roads, walks, and grounds, as they are in the local community, when they are on a leash and controlled by the owner. It is the owner's responsibility to clean up after the animal. All pets must be tagged, registered, and vaccinated in accordance with Pennsylvania State Law.

Bulletin Boards

Bulletin boards are maintained throughout the campus to bring to the attention of employees matters of importance. Bulletin boards are for the posting of College information only, and only designated employees are authorized to place materials on the board. All employees are urged to check the bulletin boards periodically.

Campus Communications

The Gettysburgian is a student newspaper that is published every week during the academic year. Accounts of activities, job openings, new appointments, transfers, and other announcements may be included.

Gettysburg Notes, otherwise known as the campus newsletter, is intended to provide interesting and worthwhile information about some of the people and programs on campus. The newsletter is also designed to provide a way to share information about the entire campus community across departmental and organizational boundaries, and to pull together information that sometimes exists only in disparate sources. Gettysburg Notes is published bimonthly.

The Digest is an on-line communication center published daily. The content of the information posted on the Digest comes from the Gettysburg campus community.

Children at the Workplace

The presence of small children in the workplace on a regular basis can cause difficulty and awkwardness for co-workers and other members of the campus community. While an occasional emergency may arise when a parent or guardian would have to bring a child to work for a limited period of time, the College does not expect this to occur on a regular basis, especially given the concern for possible injuries and accidents to the children and for the College's responsibility in the event of an accident or injury.

Computer Network Use Policy

Introduction: Gettysburg College provides a campus computer network, including access to the Internet, for students, faculty, administrators, staff, alumni, parents, and friends of Gettysburg College in order to further the educational purposes of the College. Use of the Gettysburg College network is governed by this Network Use Policy and is subject to all applicable federal, state, and local laws as well as the rules and regulations of the College.

College Authority: By using the Gettysburg College network, users are granting permission for authorized network administrators to monitor and/or intercept electronic communications. Access that is necessary to render services or to protect the property of the provider of the service is allowed under the Electronic
Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA). Further, electronic mail (email) is neither secure nor protected by the laws that apply to the United States Postal Service. Email sent from a machine on the Gettysburg College network is considered College business and is not private property.

Privileges of Network users

Privacy: The College respects the fundamental privacy of electronic communication on the campus network. The College does, however, reserve the right to gain access to otherwise private network correspondence or files maintained on the campus network. Such access would occur in certain specific circumstances in which a possible violation of the Network Use Policy must be investigated in order to protect the integrity and effective functioning of the campus network. System administrators may also require access to otherwise private files maintained on the campus network as part of regular system maintenance. An attempt will be made to notify the user of this access in advance whenever possible and appropriate. Such access is governed by applicable federal, state, and local laws.

Access: The primary purpose of the College's network is to support academic endeavors. This priority is followed by the College's business requirements. Beyond these primary functions, all users of the Gettysburg College network will generally be granted equitable access to as many network services as technology and network capacities allow.

Intellectual Freedom: Gettysburg College encourages a free and open forum for personal expression. This includes viewpoints that are unorthodox or unpopular. Except for official statements from appropriate College officers, Gettysburg College does not officially endorse any opinions stated on the network.

Protection from Harassment and Discrimination: All members of the College community are encouraged to communicate differing perspectives. Community members are also, however, entitled to work and live in an environment free of harassment and/or discrimination. Therefore any network activity that violates the College's equity policy is prohibited. Defamatory remarks and obscenity are also prohibited. The use of overt profanity is strongly discouraged.

Responsibilities of Network USERs

Account Responsibility: Access to the network is through individual accounts with password protection. All willful violations of this policy that can be traced to an individual account name will be treated as the sole responsibility of the owner of that account.

Network Degradation: The running of programs, services, systems, processes or servers by a single user, or group of users, that may substantially degrade network performance or accessibility will not be allowed. Electronic chain letters, mail bombs, and excessive recreational use of the network are prohibited.

Copyrights: Network community members must respect all copyrights and always provide proper attributions of authorship. Commercial software licensed to Gettysburg College may be installed only on machines expressly covered by the licenses. Upon request from a network administrator, individuals who have software licensed to them and installed on a Gettysburg College computer shall produce original disks and/or documentation to verify compliance.

Printing: Network users are expected to use network printing in a responsible manner by printing only those materials essential to educational, academic, or College needs and by printing selected text rather than full text when possible.

Business Transactions/Personal Use: The conduct of occasional private business or financial transactions when such uses are clearly incidental or sporadic is permitted.

Remote Server Services: Approval from the Vice Provost for Information Technology and the Dean of the College is required before any member of the Gettysburg College user community may install or use any remote access software or any server software on any computer connected to the Gettysburg College computer network.

Equipment and Configuration Control: Without specific authorization, users of Gettysburg College computing or network facilities must not cause, permit, or attempt any destruction or modification of data or computing or communications equipment nor remove or aid in the removal of any Gettysburg College-owned or administered equipment, data, or documents from a Gettysburg College facility. Without specific written authorization from Information Technology, users must not physically or electrically attach any foreign device, such as an external disk drive, printer, video system, or backup device, to Gettysburg College computer or network equipment.

Authorized College staff may make appropriate changes to any computer
connected to the Gettysburg College network consistent with the Network Use Policy, or when necessary for maintenance or repair.

Prohibited Activities

Spreading Computer Viruses and Worms: Deliberate attempts to degrade or disrupt the system performance of the Gettysburg College network or any other computer system or network on the Internet by spreading computer viruses, worms, or similar programs is considered criminal activity under state and federal law. As a precondition for network attachment and use, all personal computers must have up-to-date virus protection software installed and operating.

Impersonation: Impersonation, anonymity, pseudonyms, spoofing, and other methods of hiding, intended to cloak the true identity of a user in order to mislead or avoid
detection, is prohibited.

Business Transactions: The use of the College network and/or personal web pages to offer goods or services of a business or commercial nature is not permitted except those consistent with the College's educational or business mission.

Illegal Activities: Use of the College network for any activity contrary to local, state, or federal laws is prohibited. Illegal activities include, but are not limited to, tampering with computer hardware or software, unauthorized entry into computer systems or computer data, willful vandalism or destruction of computer data or files, or any attempt to defeat the Gettysburg College computer or network security systems.

Violations and Sanctions

Reporting Violations: Users should report any knowledge or evidence of violations of the Network Use Policy to the Vice Provost for Information Technology or the Dean of the College. Incidents of harassment and/or discrimination should also be reported to Human Resources or to one of the identified equity liaisons.

Process: Reported violations will be investigated. If the investigation yields substantial evidence of a violation of the Network Use Policy, the case will be heard through the normal College processes for reviewing a violation of policy.

Penalties: Users who violate this policy will be subject to sanctions and/or network use limitations as determined by the Provost, Director of Human Resources, or other appropriate College officials. Information Technology has the authority to temporarily revoke network access or take other appropriate action in order to maintain network security or health until the Dean of the College (or other designee) reviews an alleged infraction of the Network Use Policy.

Donations and Canvassing

The College does not permit canvassing on school property without the permission of the Vice President for College Relations.

Authorized Fund Raising

As an independent educational institution, Gettysburg College is recognized by the public as a charitable organization and thus enjoys tax-exempt status under relevant state and federal statutes. This status enables the College to seek charitable gifts from individuals who are then able to benefit from the generosity through tax deductions that reduce their tax liability. Although it is well known that few individuals make charitable gifts solely to receive tax benefits, these benefits enable donors to give more than would otherwise be the case because they reduce the net cost of charitable gifts.

The College's status as a non-profit, charitable organization is, therefore, crucially important to its health and security. Accordingly, the College must exercise this privileged status with care and restraint. The College seeks to identify and obtain charitable support that advances the College's mission through the current operating budget, its endowed funds, and improvements in the physical plant. Such support must reflect needs that are identified as institutional priorities. The identification of these priorities is one of the responsibilities of the President and his senior administrative staff, who consult with the faculty and other college staff in arriving at such priorities on a regular basis. The Board of Trustees approves these priorities as part of its budget approval responsibilities each year. The institutional priorities thus identified guide the College's on-going fund-raising programs.

All fund-raising programs of the College will be conducted or at least coordinated by appropriate members of the staff in the Division of College Relations or others whom they will recruit, train and supervise. All fund-raising efforts conducted in the name of Gettysburg College must have the explicit approval of the Vice President for College Relations. All gifts to the College must be booked through the Advancement Services Department within the College Relations Division and forwarded to the Finance Office for deposition.

 

Employees who are HIV Positive

The College has a policy, available through the Health Center, concerning participation by HIV positive employees and students in the activities of the College.

Outside Employment

The College assumes that each employee will devote full-time to his/her assigned duties. Accordingly, no employee is permitted to engage in any pursuit or occupation, with or without compensation, which interferes with the faithful discharge of College obligations. Before entering into any outside pursuit or occupation, an employee should discuss such plans with his/her supervisor. The College will ask an employee whose outside pursuit or occupation is interfering with the employee's obligations to the College to either leave the outside pursuit or occupation or improve performance to an acceptable level.

Parking

On-premises parking is available to employees. In compliance with the College's parking regulations, all vehicles must be registered and must display a College
identification sticker or hangtag obtained from the Office of Safety and Security Services. Employees are asked to use the parking areas assigned to them. The College assumes no liability for personal property left in vehicles.

The Safety and Security Office can issue special parking permits for employees with permanent or temporary disabilities. Employees possessing these valid permits may park in any authorized space on campus except loading docks, fire lanes, and service vehicle spaces.

Personal Appearance

All employees have potential contact with persons outside the school, and the success of the College depends in large measure upon the image that is projected. Therefore, it is important, and expected, that each employee maintain as neat, clean, and professional appearance as is possible in keeping with his/her job.

Casual Dress

Casual business-wear is clothing that allows the employee to feel comfortable, yet always looks neat and professional. It includes comfortable pieces, such as cotton shirts and sweaters, and khaki pants and jeans.

The following are examples of acceptable casual business-wear: polo and oxford shirts, blouses, T-shirts, sweaters/cardigans, blazers/sport coats, casual pants, jeans, skorts, stirrup pants, casual skirts, hose, sneakers/tennis shoes, sandals, deck shoes, flat shoes, boots, and loafers.

The following are unacceptable clothing to wear: wrinkled, stained or dirty clothing, flashy, "loud" clothing, T-shirts with printed messages, athletic clothing, work-out clothes, beachwear, sweat-suits, shorts, lycra shorts, and halter tops. Check the fit of casual clothing, especially the length of pants, skirts and skorts.

Please consider the day's activities when determining what to wear. Gettysburg College does have a dress-down Friday policy, however, it is important to remember events scheduled for Fridays. In some cases, when visitors are coming to the office, it may be necessary to dress in normal business attire.

Managers and supervisors are expected to enforce this policy and deal with inappropriate dress issues.

Questions about an outfit, should be discussed with your supervisor before wearing it to work.

Solicitation

Solicitation by an employee of another employee is expected to be conducted on an employee's own time and is prohibited while either person is on working time. Solicitation, therefore, may take place only during meal periods, scheduled breaks, and before and after work times. Distribution of advertising materials, handbills, or other literature in working areas of the College is not permitted at any time.