Delta's Polcies and Procedures, and federal laws, that have bearing on campus computer and Internet use are excerpted in the following sections:

POLICY 6620 -- ACADEMIC FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY

A. The San Joaquin Delta College Board of Trustees believes that faculty and students have the right to pursue teaching and learning with full freedom of inquiry. In order to assure that all, the Board understands this viewpoint adopts the following policy:

1. On Academic Freedom and Responsibility

a. Academic freedom and academic responsibility are inseparable. Academic freedom is the right of the faculty member to interpret findings logically, rationally, and dispassionately and to communicate conclusions without being subjected to any interference, molestation, or penalization because these conclusions are at variance with those of constituted authorities or organized groups beyond the college.

b. Likewise, the academic freedom of the student is the freedom to express and to defend views or beliefs, the freedom to question and differ, without authoritative repression and without scholastic penalization by the faculty or the college.

POLICY 1410 -- SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND DISCRIMINATION

A. It is the policy of San Joaquin Delta College to provide a campus environment in which students and employees may interact without fear of experiencing discrimination or harassment on the basis of sex, including sex discrimination that is not of a sexual nature, i.e., preferential treatment or exclusion based upon gender.

B. Sexual harassment is reprehensible and illegal and will not be tolerated by San Joaquin Delta College. It subverts the mission of the college, and threatens the careers, educational experience, and well being of students, faculty, and staff.

C. While sexual harassment most often takes place in situations of a power differential between the persons involved, the college also recognizes that sexual harassment may occur between persons of the same College status. The college will not tolerate behavior between or among members of the college community that creates a threatening, hostile, or intimidating working or educational environment.

D. The College establishes this policy and Procedure 1411 "Sexual Harassment and Discrimination Complaint Procedures" for the purpose of notifying all members of the campus community of the serious concern for this subject, the sanctions which students and employees may expect to incur for engaging in such prohibited conduct, and the means by which victims of harassment may seek assistance. The College will be guided by federal and state laws governing sex based discrimination in employment and education.

E. Academic freedom shall not be restricted, especially in those courses where sex-related topics are a prescribed part of the curriculum. See Policy 6620, "Academic Freedom and Responsibility," and Procedure 1411 "Sexual Harassment and Discrimination Complaint Procedures" for clarification.

A. General Definition
For purposes of this policy, the term "sexual harassment" shall be deemed to refer to unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature which occurs under circumstances where:

1. Submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual's academic progress or employment with the College;
2. Submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for decisions affecting such individual's academic or employment status with Delta College; or
3. Such conduct has the purpose or effect of negatively interfering with an individual's academic or work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive learning or working environment.

Proscribed activities

Sexual Harassment includes, but is not limited to:

1. Making unsolicited written, verbal, physical, and/or visual contact with sexual overtones.
2. Continuing to express sexual interest after being informed that the interest is unwelcome.
3. Making reprisals, threats of reprisals, or implied threats of reprisal following a negative response to sexual advances.
4. Engaging in implicit or explicit coercive sexual behavior that is used to control, influence, or affect the career, salary, or environment of another individual.
5. Offering benefits in exchange for sexual favors.
6. Repeated focus on topics of a sexual nature unless such topics are a prescribed part of the curriculum.
7. Repeated use of profanity, vulgarities, and/or suggestive or obscene gestures directed at an individual or group of individuals based on their gender.
8. Display of sexually suggestive objects, pictures, cartoons, or posters.

POLICY 1700 -- SAFE CAMPUS ENVIRONMENT

The Board of Trustees of San Joaquin Delta College recognizes the fundamental right of employees, students, and the public to a safe campus environment. Violent or coercive of any type or the threat of such behavior will not be tolerated. The College administration, through the development and enforcement of violence prevention procedures, will reinforce this basic right at all levels.

IN ADDITION TO DELTA COLLEGE POLICY AND PROCEDURES, CAMPUS COMPUTER USERS SHOULD BE AWARE OF THE FOLLOWING FEDERAL LAWS:

CHILD PORNOGRAPHY LAWS

It is a federal offense to knowingly receive child pornography (See 18 USC 2252). Child pornography is defined as: "any visual depiction of ‘sexually explicit conduct’ involving children" by 18 USC 2252 (a) (2) (A). Sexually explicit conduct is open to interpretation, but the images must usually involve sex acts and not mere suggestive poses. Each state however may enact laws because the obscenity standard articulated by the Supreme Court has been held not to apply to child pornography because child pornography is per se obscene (Miller v. California 413 U.S. 15 (1973)). It is also illegal to advertise child pornography (See also 18 USC 2251). See also New York v. Ferber 458 U.S. 747 (1982) which held that States can prohibit the depiction of minors engaged in sexual conduct. See also Osborne v. Ohio 495 U.S. 103 (1990) where the court upheld a statute making it illegal to possess child pornography.

Telecommunications Act 1996 SEC. 230. PROTECTION FOR PRIVATE BLOCKING AND SCREENING OF OFFENSIVE MATERIAL.

'(a) Findings: The Congress finds the following:

'(1) The rapidly developing array of Internet and other interactive computer services available to individual Americans represent an extraordinary advance in the availability of educational and informational resources to our citizens.

'(2) These services offer users a great degree of control over the information that they receive, as well as the potential for even greater control in the future as technology develops.

'(3) The Internet and other interactive computer services offer a forum for a true diversity of political discourse, unique opportunities for cultural development, and myriad avenues for intellectual activity.

'(4) The Internet and other interactive computer services have flourished, to the benefit of all Americans, with a minimum of government regulation.

'(5) Increasingly Americans are relying on interactive media for a variety of political, educational, cultural, and entertainment services.

'(b) Policy: It is the policy of the United States--

'(1) to promote the continued development of the Internet and other interactive computer services and other interactive media;

'(2) to preserve the vibrant and competitive free market that presently exists for the Internet and other interactive computer services, unfettered by Federal or State regulation;

'(3) to encourage the development of technologies which maximize user control over what information is received by individuals, families, and schools who use the Internet and other interactive computer services;

'(4) to remove disincentives for the development and utilization of blocking and filtering technologies that empower parents to restrict their children's access to objectionable or inappropriate online material; and

'(5) to ensure vigorous enforcement of Federal criminal laws to deter and punish trafficking in obscenity, stalking, and harassment by means of computer.

(c) Protection for 'Good Samaritan' Blocking and Screening of Offensive Material:

1. Treatment of publisher or speaker: No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.
2. Civil liability: No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be held liable on account of--
   1. Any action voluntarily taken in good faith to restrict access to or availability of material that the provider or user considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable, whether or not such material is constitutionally protected; or
   2. Any action taken to enable or make available to information content providers or others the technical means to restrict access to material described in paragraph (1).