Did you know that using your UD computing account for commercial purposes is against University policies? According to Betsy MacKenzie, IT Help Center, all such uses of UD's resources are violations--unless you receive prior approval by the appropriate administrator.

"It's all spelled out in paragraph II.D. of the policy," MacKenzie said.

There are, however, exceptions. For example, professional staff or faculty members' listing of their consulting specialties on his or her vita is acceptable because it is covered by University policy. (See the University's "Policy on Professional Consultation" [http://www.udel.edu/ExecVP/polprod/4-84.htm].)

"The University provides an online classified advertising service [https://www.mis4.udel.edu/classifieds/] for students and faculty, but that service is intended as an 'incidental use' of the University's resources," she said.

In fact, the classified advertising service does have restrictions. The 'About this service' file states that use of the classifieds is a privilege that employees and students need to treat carefully.

MacKenzie said that the University's "Policy for Employee's Use of E-mail" [http://www.udel.edu/ExecVP/polprod/1-19.html] defines "incidental use" of UD's resources.

"We extend that approach to student use of e-mail as well," she said.

"A student sending e-mail back and forth with an off-campus employer is considered 'incidental use,' but soliciting sales using University computing resources is a violation of the policy."

MacKenzie explained that students who have an off-campus business can certainly include a link to that off-campus business on a UD student home page, "but the actual information about the commercial service needs to be hosted on a non-UD web server and outside the UD network."

Technically, any direct solicitation for funds is considered a violation.

"Although the University participates in the United Way of Delaware and supports primary and secondary education throughout the state, individual employees using the University's e-mail system to solicit charitable donations or to sell gift wrapping paper, pizza kits or cookies--even if it's to raise funds for a school or a United Way agency--is a violation of the policy," she said.

The best resource for posting this kind of information is on the UD classified ad service," she added.

According to MacKenzie, if employees wish to obtain permission to solicit funds for a charitable cause, they should send their requests to their department chair or director; students should send such requests to access@udel.edu.

"The bottom line is that UD's computing resources, like all University resources, are intended to extend the University's primary academic missions--teaching, learning and research," she said.