Guilford College provides a telephone system, telephone equipment and voicemail as a shared resource to faculty and staff for business use, as well as to students for their use, and prohibits actions that inhibit or interfere with the appropriate and intended use of the phone system by others.
Purpose/Reason for Policy: To outline the acceptable uses of the College’s telephone system and equipment by members of the campus community.
Scope/Covered Persons: All Guilford College faculty, staff, students and guests
The Policy:
- All College telephones and telephone numbers are the property of Guilford College and are intended to facilitate College business.
- Non-business use of College telephones by employees is permitted as long as that use is minimal and does not interfere with either the operations of the College or any employee’s job performance. Accordingly, employees should not place or receive unnecessary or frequent personal calls during working hours.
- Telephone services and wiring may not be modified or extended beyond the area of their intended use and should only be modified by authorized IT&S staff.
- Residential room or office connections may not be used to provide telephone access to anyone outside the college community for any purposes other than those that are in direct support of the academic mission of the college.
- Unauthorized use of an individual’s telephone extension number or voice mailbox and any attempt to gain access to a voice mailbox other than your own is prohibited. Voice mailbox passwords should never be exchanged.
- Students are not permitted to accept collect calls, arrange for third party billing to their campus telephone extension or place operator assisted calls that result in a charge to the college. Any campus telephone extension determined to be accepting or making such calls will be subject to a fine plus the cost of the call(s). Telecommunications assumes no responsibility for determining who accepted or placed a call. Bills and/or fines will be directed to the relevant extension.
- Students are not authorized to establish, with any vendor, any type of long distance access account assigned to any campus telephone extension. A campus telephone extension determined by Telecommunications to have such an account in use will be subject to a fine plus the cost of any call(s) and the account is subject to cancellation. Telecommunications assumes no responsibility for determining who placed a call. Bills and/or fines will be directed to the relevant extension.
- Attempting to place a billable call from any college telephone without paying for the service may constitute theft. The College may levy a fine on the responsible party if an investigation is required over and above the cost of the telephone call(s).
- The college policy for harassment, sexual harassment and respect for all persons extends to all uses of electronic technology and communication on campus, including answering machines and voice mailboxes. Refer to the policies in the Guilford College Student Handbook (students) and the Guilford Employee Handbook for further information and a description of your options for addressing such harassment. Any member of the Guilford community receiving profane, indecent, harassing or threatening calls should report them immediately to the Office of Public Safety, ext. 2909.
- Forgery or other misrepresentations of one’s identity via electronic or any other form of communication is a College policy violation. This includes concealing or falsifying one’s age for purposes of accessing material restricted from minors. State and Federal laws may also apply.
- A college-assigned telephone may not be used by any person to transact or otherwise conduct a commercial business.
Roles and Responsibilities:
IT&S: Manage the telephone equipment and connectivity as well as the assignment of telephones and extensions.
Employees and Students: Use the telephone system according to this policy, as well as local, state and federal laws. and reimburse the College for any personal long-distance calls they make from College phones.
Compliance: Failure to comply with this policy may result in:
- Termination privileges for phone or voicemail services, and/or phone equipment.
- Charge for damage or costs incurred by college as a result of violation of this policy.
- For employee violations, disciplinary action, up to and including termination of employment
- For student violations, formal judicial charges as outlined in the Guilford College Student Handbook.
Procedures:
Whenever possible, telephone extensions are assigned to an individual and can usually be transferred to another department if that individual changes offices. Exceptions to the above are: when more than one individual shares an extension or when extension numbers are assigned to a position rather than an individual.
Each department will receive from IT&S a monthly listing of all calls made from each of its extensions. Personal calls will be charged against a department's account until such time as the individual pays the Business Office. It is the responsibility of each department to ensure that personal calls are paid to the Business Office. Collect calls and third party charges against the College will not be accepted.
Approval Authority: Guilford College President
Responsible Office: Chuck Curry, Director of IT&S, Bauman 107A, 336.316.2426, curryrc@guilford.edu
Revision History:
- Updated in the Employee Handbook revision of 2018;
- June 2018: Combined with IT&S Policy on Acceptable Use of Telephone System