Furman University

Effective Date(s): 03/07/06

Title: FirstClass Conferences

Applicable: Furman University (Students, Faculty and Staff)

Contacts: The Computer Help Desk ext.3277

Background: Due to the increase of requests as well as the unorganized creation of FirstClass conferences, it has become necessary to create a policy surrounding conferences. All conferences must adhere to the following rules and regulations.

Policy: The primary purpose of the FirstClass conference policy is to address who is entitled to FirstClass conferences, who may be a controller, how large a conference may be, as well as what type of data may be uploaded.

Guidelines:

1. FirstClass conferences exist for academic, administrative, and organizational purposes.
2. FirstClass conferences exist to exchange written information between individuals, not to exchange photographs, video clips and other large attachments. Individuals that wish to exchange such items should use their FirstClass Homepage Folder, or other web space to do so.
3. No conference, other than conferences created for administration purposes, may exceed 50MB unless special permission has been requested and given.
4. FirstClass conferences have been divided into the following classifications:
1. Administrative Conferences
2. Academic Conferences
3. Clubs and Organizations
4. Freshmen Halls
5. Administrative conferences: Faculty and Staff that need a conference created for an administrative purpose will have one created for them.
1. Administrative conferences are required to be kept clean of unwanted and unused data.
6. Faculty that would like a conference created for an academic purpose will have one created. All academic conferences are scheduled to be deleted on July 1st of each year, unless the faculty member has made a special request. With the exception of Summer classes, new requests for academic conferences will be taken starting on August 1st of each year.
7. Students that would like a conference created for an academic purpose must have a faculty or staff member that is willing to act as the conference controller. The student may also be a controller of the conference, but the faculty or staff member will be contacted in times of a policy breach. When a conference is created the name of the faculty or staff sponsor must be given. The faculty or staff sponsor will be contacted before the conference is created. All academic conferences will be deleted on July 1st of each year, unless a special request is made. New request for academic conference will be taken starting on August 1st of each year.
8. All clubs and organizations sanctioned by the University are entitled to a FirstClass conference. All of these FirstClass conferences must have a faculty or staff sponsor that will act as the conference controller. Students may also be a controller of the conference, but the faculty or staff member will be contacted in times of a policy breach.
1. All items in a club or organization conference will be set to expire in 90days.
2. Club and Organization conferences must be renewed at the start of each school year. The controller of the conference must contact the Computer Help Desk by September 30th of each school year in order to continue to use the conference.
9. RA’s may request conferences for freshmen halls. Request for such conferences will be taken starting July 1st each year. All freshmen hall conferences will be deleted January 30th of the school year they were created.
1. RA’s do not need an additional staff or faculty sponsor to have a freshmen hall conference created.
2. These conferences must stay within the 50mb limit.
3. All items will expire after 30 days.
4. Message size will be limited to 1mb or below.
10. Controllers are responsible for ensuring their conference is configured properly. Conferences that are left unsecured or abandoned will be disabled and possibly deleted based on interaction with the conference controller.
11. Conferences that violate this policy will be disabled. Once a conference is disabled, the controller will be contacted. Depending on the outcome of the contact with the controller and the severity of the violation, the conference may be reopened under a new controller or the conference may be deleted.
12. Once a conference is deleted for any reason, it will not be restored from a backup.