CSE Lab and Shared System Use Policies

All lab users are expected to follow the CSE departmental lab and shared system use policies. These policies are in place to help keep the systems running well for everyone and to provide fair access to everyone.  These policies are not meant to be an exhaustive list of everything you can or cannot do. Always remember to use common sense and be respectful.

Lab Use Policies

Most of the policies are in place because the departmental equipment needs to be shared by many people. Some policies are meant to provide everyone fair access to the equipment. Other policies are to address problems that have come up in the past.

  1. No food or drink.  No food or drink is allowed in any of the public labs.  Food and drink spills damage or ruin electronic equipment.
  2. Print Minimally.  Print only things you absolutely need to print. Paper and toner are expensive and use a lot of valuable natural resources.
  3. Screen-Locking.  If you need to leave the lab for a short time (15 minutes or less), it is OK to "lock" the display.  But if you will be gone more than 15 minutes, log off.  Other users might be waiting to log in.
  4. Gaming.  It is OK to use the computers for recreational purposes as long as the lab is not full. But if the lab is close to being full, the computers should only be used for academic purposes. In the labs, academic work always trumps play.
  5. Network Extension.  Unless otherwise noted, do not connect personal equipment to the departmental wired network. Personal equipment could introduce malware onto the network.
  6. Network Reconfiguration.  Do not move, unplug, reboot, or reconfigure departmental equipment unless instructed to do so by cse-consult.

Shared System Use Policies

  1. Out-of-Control Processes. In most cases, when we find a process running on an inappropriate system, we will warn the process's owner via e-mail that we are about to kill the process, then we will kill the process. We will kill a process immediately, without necessarily notifying its owner, if the process is adversely affecting other users or systems, or if it is a CPU-intensive process running on one of the CSE student servers.