E-610.2 Software Licensing and Installation on College Computers

All College software must be procured under Policy D-554 – Procurement. Users may not install personally owned software on information technology resources owned by the College (including media players, screensavers, games, etc.). Before installation, the original copy of the software must be on file in the Information Technology Services Department (ITS). ITS shall maintain records of commercial licenses and GNU General Public software licenses installed on all College computers.

ITS are the only Employees authorized to copy or install software programs on network servers. The installation of freeware, shareware, open source, and trial programs on College computers will not be permitted unless previously approved by the appropriate Dean and the IT Director. When unauthorized software is found, ITS staff will remove it.

The College will not install or support software from competing vendors that provide the same function as college-licensed and supported software (e.g., installing a virus protection package different than the college-supported package).

The College reserves the right to track and remove peer-to-peer applications for sharing files and bandwidth exploitation. Such applications may infringe on copyright material and can be used to gain unauthorized access to the college IT networks. Anyone who reinstalls software removed by ITS may lose privileges to access college computer systems or may be subject to disciplinary action per college policies.

The appropriate number of software licenses will be purchased to maintain legal compliance. Licenses must be applied under the software vendors’ licensing practices. The College forbids, under any circumstances, the unauthorized reproduction of software or use of illegally obtained software.

Employees and Students must adhere to any specific conditions or restrictions required by licensing agreements for software programs purchased with college funds. Proper licensing, vendor support, and compatibility testing are necessary for the best computing experience in college computer labs, classrooms, and Employee workstations.  Installation and testing of new software and upgrades to existing software in instructional labs and classrooms require significant lead time for proper evaluation and testing. To meet budget development and approval deadlines, new software, and upgrade requirements should be determined during curriculum and business planning cycles. Software media must be delivered to ITS for package development, testing, and deployment six (6) weeks before the required use date. Deployment of enterprise software and other complex software may take more than six (6) weeks for package development and testing. Mid-semester software upgrades and installations are strongly discouraged due to potential compatibility issues that can cause application or system failures during classes. Software deployment cannot negatively impact Student learning; therefore, all instructional software will undergo thorough technical testing by ITS and operation testing by the appropriate stakeholders before deployment. Special situations will be addressed individually and must be approved by the appropriate Dean and IT Director. Software purchases and installation requests must be made per the procedures and forms established by the College as posted on the College Intranet.