SECUSS-L APPROPRIATE USE
POLICIES
(
updated 10/19/2004,
rev.
02/07/2008 05:17:44 PM
)
![]() |
||
Please carefully consider the way you address issues on SECUSS-L. Remember the list is public, archived and everything you say will be maintained for years to come. As with your campuses, institutions, organizations, and even ISP's there are appropriate use rules that you should consider in your use of email, personal/professional interactions on SECUSS-L, etc. Although it is difficult to predict what will appear or be said during conversations or in the media it is clear one should seriously consider the implications of what is said on SECUSS-L. CAREFULLY THINK ABOUT YOUR POSTINGS BEFORE SENDING THEM. SECUSS-L has over 3000 members as of May 2006 in over 44 countries
and in a range of professional affiliations. DO NOT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS
ABOUT THE MEMBERSHIP OF THIS LIST. |
GENERAL ETIQUETTE | ||
PROFESSIONAL CODE OF ETHICS AND STANDARDS | ADVERTISING, MARKETING | |
COMPLAINTS, APOLOGIES, CONFIDENTIALITY AND THE LIKE | ||
CAVEAT ABOUT CREATING LISTS AND SUMMARIES |
Do not use the SECUSS-L network for messages intended for an individual receiver. It is not professionally appropriate to carry on detailed, judgmental discussions about individual programs on a public network such as SECUSS-L. In addition such discussions cannot be permitted for legal reasons.
One good rule is to remember that what you say in person or over the phone verbally is one thing, however often similar discourse or expressions are often not proper within the written forms of expression. Similarly what might be appropriate in one context in writing may not be appropriate in other written contexts. For email responses especially in a real time context or for issues which evoke an immediate response a useful suggestion is for one to think about the response for 24hrs, then write the response and again read it several hours later or even the next day. Responses to surveys can be more accurate, responses to hot topic issues can be more reflective and most importantly the writer has a chance to ensure that the appropriate use rules are adhered to for whatever the context such remarks are made for.
For guidance on ethical and professional standards please
carefully review the NAFSA code of professional ethics and the
SECUSSA case studies posted at:
http://www.nafsa.org/about.sec/governance_leadership/ethics_standards
and
http://www.nafsa.org/knowledge_community_network.sec/education_abroad_1
For additional codes of ethics and professional standards please check with the international education, registrar, admissions officer and other professional organizations appropriate to your area of specialization. Such codes and standards provide the basis for management of SECUSS-L and its diverse membership. Additionally, be AWARE that SECUSS-L policies continue to be based on the guidelines under which SECUSS-L was originally established with limited updates and modifications.
The primary purpose of SECUSS-L is information-sharing and professional discourse among the membership of SECUSSA. When a colleague or member of SECUSS-L posts a request for information all the REPLIES should go the person or individual requesting the information. Program providers, institutions and others in the field should refrain from posting replies to the list that can be construed as advertising or marketing.
AGAIN, advertising, marketing and program announcements are not permitted on the SECUSS-L topic DISCUSSIONS (DISC:). This prohibition represents the overwhelming consensus of current subscribers, as confirmed by a user survey conducted in May, 1996, and approved by the SECUSSA Team during the Phoenix NAFSA Conference. In regards to announcements of new professional resource books, training opportunities and calls for journal articles, your listserv managers and your SECUSS-L colleagues ask you to consider carefully whether your post might be construed as "marketing"; in most cases, posts of this type should be made to the PROGRAMS Topic.
Subscribers seeking information in specific program information, seeking
to post or receive announcements about established or new study/ work/internship
programs, extended application deadlines, significant changes in program
structure, and the like, should sign-on to the SECUSS-L TOPIC: PROGRAMS
sub-list. Such REQUESTS should be posted to SECUSS-L using the TOPIC
called PROGRAMS or PROG. Announcements of book reviews,
conferences, workshops, study abroad fairs and calls for papers may be
distributed over PROG: using the general format below. We ask that messages of
this kind not exceed one word-processed screen (60 lines)
In the
subject line, write:
PROG: (Event/Program name)
In the message area, write:
(Name of institution/organization) is pleased to
announce (name of event/program).
[Brief description of program change, or
workshop particulars]
If you would like to receive further information,
please contact (contact person) at (address or web-site).
How do we as list managers address these issues? What are the standards of actions by the list managers behind the scenes? -- When we receive a posting that is determined to be a breech of the appropriate use guidelines we contact the list member directly. In our contact we advise the person who posted the message of our determination that the posting crossed the threshold of appropriate use and to take any further discussion off the list.
FIRST VIOLATION: The user is warned that further violations can lead to several actions.
SECOND VIOLATION: For a second violation the user may be put on a period of "review" whereby all emails from a given user are monitored before being posted. Depending on the violation and if there are questions about professional standards the notice could be taken to the professional leadership colleagues for further review.
THIRD VIOLATION: A third violation of the list protocols could then subject the member to removal from the listserv for a given period of time. Further violations could lead to permanent removal from the list.
SUBSEQUENT VIOLATIONS FOLLOWING RETURN TO THE LIST: The list managers reserve the right to permanently suspend anyone who continues to violate the appropriate use rules of SECUSS-L following warnings and previous suspensions.
We do not discuss such actions publicly as there are privacy
as well as professional standards that must be followed. Additionally
depending on the nature of the violation we do reserve the right to immediately
restrict user access to the list following the first posting.
Again,
although many members of SECUSS-L are not members of NAFSA we would urge you all
to read the NAFSA code of professional ethics as many of us are members of this
organization. Furthermore many professional organizations have their own code of
ethics as well. This code of professional ethics provides a good background as
well for any professional discourse on the SECUSS-L listserv.
Back to
Top
Many of you are also members of institutions or even ISP's with "Appropriate Use" rules for your email, web and technology systems. We would urge you to review such rules. You may find that a posting of certain types of messages could subject you to actions by your institutions, ISP's, etc.
With respect to Copyright laws, please be aware that there are many copyright rules associated with not only paper publications but also with news and informational items posted on the web or through web access to news and other publications.
As mentioned in the welcome message subscribers receive, one
of the suggested uses of SECUSS-L is : "Offering succinct summaries of new
articles, books, essays, and other writings on education abroad, perhaps with
comments for discussion. Please give full documentation.
Respect 'fair
use' copyright laws. Please do not post whole articles." Posting of
entire articles to SECUSS-L clearly does NOT follow the appropriate use
rules.
Prior to posting any articles you should check the
copyright rules for the specific item you are reading. Posting a title,
date, author and a very brief summary plus a link to the article online would be
appropriate. If the site is password protected, one should note this so
colleagues can be ready to either use or create their own login or to look for a
hardcopy in print. For instance the following are the copyright notices
from the sources of some recent postings on SECUSS-L:
EXCERPTS of
Copyright statements from popular sources that members use:
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html
NYT Copyright Notice
"Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company All
rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United
States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted,
displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of The
New York Times Company. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or
other notice from copies of the content. However, you may download material from
The New York Times on the Web (one machine readable copy and one print copy per
page) for your personal, noncommercial use only. For further information, see
Section Two of the Subscriber Agreement. To contact other Times departments, see
the Site Help area of our Member Center. "
http://chronicle.com/help/copyright.htm
Chronicle of Higher Education: Copyright and Reprint Requests
"All
material on this World Wide Web site is copyright © by The Chronicle of Higher
Education. Permission is required, in most cases, to redistribute information
from The Chronicle, either in print or electronically. Following is information
about reusing material from this site and the printed Chronicle.
USE ONLINE
In almost all cases, we prefer that other organizations link to articles on our
site rather than reproducing them online. Permission is not required for
linking. Permission is required to post Chronicle articles, or the contents of
Chronicle e-mail reports, on Web sites,
newsgroups, or electronic mailing
lists (either restricted or general). Permission is not required for sending an
occasional copy of an article to a few people. "
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/copyright.html
NYT Copyright Notice
"Educators may not sublicense the foregoing limited and
non-transferable rights. Except as specifically set forth above, the Content may
not be published, broadcast or reproduced without the prior written permission
of The New York Times Company.
Educators may not alter or remove any
trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the Content or otherwise
alter or modify the Content. Any reproduction of the Content is limited to the
number of students to whom the lesson is directed."
Be aware that although authors of articles may give you permission to reprint or post their specific articles such permissions may also be controlled in part or in whole by the PUBLISHER of the article, book, newspaper, web site or other location in which the information appeared. The author in fact may NOT have full permission to authorize unfettered circulation of the document published. Check with the publishers as well as the authors.
When making an authorized posting of such information note at the beginning of the posting who authorized the posting, name of the affiliated organization, date of the authorization and LIMITATIONS of further circulation of said documents. For instance:
“XYZ LNAME author and/or WXY ORGANIZATION on MM/DD/YEAR authorized the circulation of the following article in its entirety. Please be aware that this is a limited approval to circulate the information only to SECUSS-L and not for further circulation by others. If you wish to further circulate this document please contact XYZ/WXY directly.”
SECUSS-L DISCOURAGES THE POSTING OF LISTS, SUMMARIES AND COMMENTARIES on SECUSS-L. Be aware that when posting commentaries, summaries or creating lists for distribution to members you should clearly identify any criteria you used to create the information and indicate any endorsements. For instance include statements such as “There were no or were XXXX criteria for selection of the information included in this document. This is a list, summary or review, just like the IIE catalog, studyabroad.com, or the phone book. For anyone who sees, gets, reads, passes on the list: NO ENDORSEMENTS WERE/ARE IMPLIED or EXPLICITLY STATED.” Also be aware that many professionals include confidentiality statements in their emails as footer or in their signature files. Unless the sender has specifically approved distribution of the comments or information shared the receiving party should refrain from circulating said information.
Confidentiality
If you feel that a member has violated the SECUSS-L appropriate use guidelines you are welcome to make a written complaint to the list management. Such complaints should be made in a timely manner and specify the exact nature of the concern and include a copy of the specific posting, emails, etc. It is highly recommended that if you feel that you have been inappropriately commented about that you take your complaints directly to the sender of the posting as SECUSS-L takes no responsibility for the views, opinions or comments made by those posting to the listserv. Be aware that such review may take up to a week or longer depending on the time of year and nature of the complaint.
The posting of apologies to SECUSS-L by those who may have inappropriately commented or otherwise erred in their posting must be succinct, professional and must refrain from further commentary.
The SECUSS-L management team reserves the right to refer professional complaints to the sender of any posting and where appropriate to appropriate professional organizations such as NAFSA, ACRAO, etc. professional ethics team for review. Although the SECUSS-L will manage all actions as confidentially as possible we cannot guarantee total confidentiality for all cases when actions are required.
To contact the listserv managers please email: SECUSS-L-request@listserv.buffalo.edu
With the exponential growth in free email accounts as well as similar growth in ISP’s many members of SECUSS-L use email accounts that end @yahoo.com, @hotmail.com, etc. Furthermore individuals may use account identifiers such as “someone1234@someisp.com” therefore when when making remarks to the list or in posting requests for information it would be most useful to have your name, title and institutional affiliation signed in the text at the bottom of the email. Please be careful NOT to attach "signature" cards or to implement HTML code in formatting your email or signature as this may be rejected by the listserv.
We understand there are on occasion very fine lines of distinctions on many subjects and we are not interested in blocking discourse, freedom of expression, etc.. however we also realize there are 3000 members on this list around the world with as many different approaches to every topic as there are members. The SECUSS-L membership has over the years expressed a desire for a managed environment for professional discourse and exchange of information under certain appropriate use guidelines which are agreed to when subscribing to SECUSS-L.
Again be aware that violation of the SECUSS-L appropriate use guidelines can lead to warnings and suspensions from SECUSS-L
If you wish to contact only the list owner(s) for a
specific request, send your email to:
SECUSS-L-request@listserv.buffalo.edu