A friendly reminder from our friends in IT
This summer, several groups on campus collaborated to create and publish information for our
faculty on using technology tools. However, some of that information applies to our staff as
well. The Data Security and Stewardship committee recently discussed the potential personal
legal liability which may be inadvertently created by our faculty and staff when they use a tool
with which WCU does not have a contractual relationship to store University data. As a part of
that discussion, we wanted to send a reminder out about this issue.
The original document created this summer can be viewed at
https://doitnews.wcu.edu/2020/07/guidelines-for-technology-adoption/, and includes a link to
a table listing software options, advantages, and support available.
Specific portions which we feel warrant a reminder include:
• Online instruction, including the online extension of face-to-face instruction, has
different constraints due to law and the nature of the global internet. As employees of
the State of North Carolina, we all have an obligation to keep student data safe. Many
units of the university work hard to guard student data from inappropriate use or
exposure. These efforts are codified in University Policy 97 (Data Security and
Stewardship) and University Policy 106 (Identity Theft Protection). By university policy,
federal law, and North Carolina law, faculty own their personally-created instructional
material as intellectual property owners, and students own their intellectual
property. Student work product can be organized and reused for assessment purposes,
but cannot and should not be published or disseminated without written student
permission. WCU-contracted tools allow for options that protect student privacy while
allowing the sharing of information for course and assessment purposes. Many “free”
available tools and apps do not.
• The contracts that we have with our current service providers (Microsoft, Ellucian
(Banner), Blackboard, Panopto, etc.) obligates these businesses to respect all WCU data
policies and procedures and to comply with federal regulations like FERPA (and HIPPA
where the contract specifies).
• University employees who violate university policy, including the policies mentioned
above, take upon themselves the risk of personal legal liability, and may be subject to
discipline or dismissal, regardless of tenure status. Please refer to the policies
mentioned as well as the Faculty Handbook for more information.
• We urge you to manage your own risk, and the risk of our students, by using the tools
from vendors with whom we have contracted or by following the appropriate
procedure for technical, budgetary, and legal review for new products.
We encourage you to review those software tools for which we have a contractual agreement.
As always, the Division of Information Technology and the Coulter Faculty Commons are happy
to help our faculty and staff with any questions about using our university’s adopted software.
The fastest way to get help from either the Help Desk or the Coulter Faculty Commons is to
submit a self-service ticket at https://ithelp.wcu.edu.
We look forward to hearing from you!
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