Harper College will be closed Monday, September 1, in observance of Labor Day.
Recognizing the value of diversity and free speech, Harper College makes WWW resources available to all segments of the Harper College community but does not review, edit or endorse all items accessible from these pages.
The Marketing Services Department at Harper College is responsible for the design and maintenance of the College's Web site. However, Marketing Services is not responsible for the completeness, accuracy, or timeliness of information provided by other divisions, departments, or individuals.
WWW home pages are not official statements of Harper College, and the College is not responsible for the content of every page that you can reach from this site. Every effort will be made to ensure the accuracy and consistency of materials published on the College Web site.
Opinions expressed in personal or non-departmental home pages are solely the responsibility of the author.
The College's domain name is www.harpercollege.edu.
I. Philosophy:
Harper College provides technology resources, software, and facilities to further
the College's mission. Access and use of facilities is a privilege and must be treated
as such by all users. Acceptable use is based on common sense, common decency, and
civility. Users are subject to guidelines set in this Acceptable Use Policy.
II. Risk and Responsibility: E-Mail, Internet Resources, and Electronic Files
A. Security
Harper College utilizes best practices and industry standards to protect data and
filter materials transmitted or received via the College. Harper College does not
assume liability for offensive material that any user may encounter, such as material
that is illegal, defamatory, obscene, inaccurate, or controversial.
Users are responsible for all activities originating from their account(s), including
all information sent from, intentionally requested, solicited, or viewed from their
account(s) and publicly accessible information placed on a computer using their account(s).
In addition, users are responsible for logging off applications and computers to prevent
unauthorized access.
In addition, users are responsible for refraining from sharing Personally Identifiable
Information (PII) or other sensitive data while using collaboration tool applications, including but
not limited to chat, email, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and/or video conferencing
applications.
Sensitive data disclosed to the public could be considered a violation of Federal
and State laws, including but not limited to Family Educational Rights and Privacy
Act (FERPA), Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Payment Card Industry (PCI), Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA).
B. Privacy
Users are strictly prohibited from accessing files and information other than their
own, those intended for the user, and those for which the user has permission from
authorized College personnel to access.
The College reserves the right to access its systems, including current and archival
files of users' accounts; if that access would be imperative to conducting College
business; if there is strong evidence of improper usage; or strong evidence of impropriety.
Electronic files can be inspected under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act (IFOIA).
Any inspection of electronic files, and any action based upon such review, will be
governed by all applicable federal and state laws and College policies.
C. Education and Training
All users are responsible for using the facilities and all forms of technology resources
ethically and legally. Users are expected to follow equipment and lab usage guidelines
and, when necessary, receive training in using these resources and accept responsibility
for their work. In addition, users are responsible for learning and adequately using
the features of securing and/or sharing access to data.
D. Personal Use
As a result of agreements Harper College has with technology providers, users may
be offered technology for personal use. If users take advantage of these offers, any
agreement, conditions, or terms of use are between the user and the outside technology
provider. Information resource providers outside the College may, in turn, impose
additional conditions of appropriate use, which the user is responsible for observing
when using those resources.
III. Unacceptable Uses:
It is the joint responsibility of all users to help avoid unacceptable uses such as
but not limited to:
IV. Consequences:
Abuse of these guidelines will result in possible legal action and/or official campus
disciplinary procedures. Incidents involving unacceptable uses will be handled through
existing processes.
V. Generative AI Guidelines
As part of Harper College's commitment to the ethical and responsible use of Artificial
Intelligence (AI) technologies, this policy establishes the principles and guidelines
governing their use. The goal is to ensure that generative AI tools are employed ethically,
maintain data integrity, and are compliant with Harper College’s Information Security
Policies along with all relevant laws and regulations. Generative AI refers to a category
of artificial intelligence that creates new content, such as text, images, audio,
or code, based on patterns learned from existing data. Violations of this policy may
result in restricted access to the College's technical environment, data, or other
appropriate disciplinary action.
Objective
The purpose of this policy is to ensure the proper use of generative AI tools by Harper
users. This is to uphold the commitment to the professional integrity of Harper College.
Scope
All Harper users who use College-owned or personal-owned devices to access the College's
technological environment and data must adhere to this policy. A 'Harper user' includes
any individual authorized to access Harper College's technology environment and data,
including faculty, staff, students, contractors, student workers, parents and other
community members. The Policy covers all generative AI, which refers to systems trained
on datasets to produce various types of content such as text, images, videos, sounds,
or other work products in response to prompts.
Policy
All Harper user technology usages are subject to Harper’s Acceptable Use Policy. When utilizing a generative AI tool, Harper users are expected to uphold high standards
of professionalism and discretion. These guidelines provide some examples of permitted
or prohibited use of generative AI tools. Harper College reserves the right to access
and monitor AI content shared, including but not limited to messages, prompts, and
files. This Policy will continuously be reviewed and updated in accordance with ongoing
changes in generative AI technology.
Departmental purchases of generative AI tools must be approved using the Technology Purchase Request process.
Harper User Responsibility
I. AI-generated content may contain damaging information that is:
Harper users are accountable for their actions, including protecting confidential
data and creating content. Harper users are the authors of AI-generated content and
are responsible for it. Before distributing the AI-generated content, Harper users
must review the AI-generated content and rectify any biased, inaccurate, harmful,
or inappropriate elements.
II. Generative AI has enabled cybercriminals to produce highly developed phishing
emails, malware attacks, and deep fakes - images or recordings convincingly manipulated
to falsely portray someone saying or doing something without their consent. Harper
users should report any suspicious messages or content to Harper Information Security.
III. Harper users are responsible for the usage of data and how it is utilized by
the generative AI tool. This includes all data entered and retrieved from AI tools.
IV. Harper users are responsible for ensuring the appropriate use of generative AI
tools within Harper College. They must report policy violations to Harper Information
Security.
Appropriate Use
Appropriate generative AI tool usage, examples of which are described below. This
list is not intended to be exhaustive but rather to provide illustrative examples
to guide your use of generative AI tools.
Inappropriate Use
Harper users should not distribute material that is inaccurate, misleading, fabricated,
malicious, unethical, discriminatory, or copyrighted. Users of Harper systems shall
not disclose information about students or employees in violation of Harper College
policies or laws that protect the confidentiality of such information.
Inappropriate generative AI tool usage is prohibited, examples of which are described
below. This list is not intended to be exhaustive but rather to provide some illustrative
examples to guide use of generative AI tools.