General Policies & Confidentiality

Student Assistants will perform services for Instructional Technology Services at San Diego State University which may require ITS to disclose confidential and proprietary information ("Confidential Information") to Student Assistants. (Confidential Information is any information of any kind, nature, or description concerning any matters affecting or relating to Employee's services for ITS, the business or operations of ITS, and/or the products, drawings, plans, processes, or other data of ITS). Accordingly, to protect the ITS Confidential Information that will be disclosed to Student Assistants, the Student Assistant agrees as follows.

Protecting Student Rights

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. The overarching purpose of FERPA is the protection of confidentiality in a student’s educational records, as well as the right of a student to inspect those records.

To some extent, you are considered a “school official.” Student employees may access students’ education records only to the extent necessary for them to do their jobs; in other words, only to meet “legitimate educational interests.” What’s more, although a person has legitimate access to a student’s education records, that person may not use such information in a manner that is improper, violates a student’s privacy interests, or for personal benefit.

  • You shall not to share RED IDs, Grades and even class schedule and courses completed/dropped/etc.

  • You shall not to seek to gain personal benefit or to allow others to benefit from confidential information that you have gained access to as a result of your appointment an ITS. It is imperative that you report any suspected violations of FERPA to your supervisor IMMEDIATELY.

Tests, Assignments, Hidden Notes, Comments, and other content within a course

The SDSU Student Code of Conduct addresses other issues that might come into play for student workers. As student workers, you are able to see tests, assignments, and other resources that Faculty may not intend to be made public. This could involve even something as simple as leaving a screen up on a computer and walking away. Academic misconduct includes dishonest acts such as tampering with grades or taking part in obtaining or distributing any part of an administered or unadministered test/assignment. Examples include, but are not limited to the following.

  • You shall not participate in stealing, selling, or otherwise distributing all or part of an test (regardless of if it has been administered or not).

  • You shall not participate in selling or giving away all or part of any course material.

  • You shall not accept a bribe or any form of compensation or request from another person to obtain information (questions, start date, duration, configuration, etc.) to an exam (regardless of if it has been administered or not).

  • You shall not participate in changing, altering, or being an accessory to the changing and/or altering of a grade in a grade book, on a test, a “change of grade” form, or other official academic records of the University that relate to grades.

  • You shall not participate in any selling, or distribution to another student for use in fulfilling academic requirements, any theme, report, term paper, essay, computer software, other written work, painting, drawing, sculpture, or other scholastic art work.

Faculty Confidentiality and Discretion

Student employees may not disclose any information about faculty and teaching assistants, unless required by an executive order by the President's or Chancellor's Office (examples of this include Title XI).

  • You shall not participate in disclosing or divulging either directly or indirectly confidential information faculty shares with an employee, unless required by University Mandate.

  • You shall not participate in disclosing either directly or indirectly instructors' technical skills and competencies with anyone except for ITS Staff

  • You shall not participate in discussing instructors' behavior and temper with other instructors and employees, with exception to your supervisor or lead (if applicable) in private setting.

Access to ITS Resources

In order to prevent all of the above, student employees may only access ITS resources during their work hours and on-campus at ITS unless given explicit permission by a supervisor.

  • You shall not access Desk.com from outside of ITS, e.g. at home, in the residence halls, etc. without explicit permission.

  • You shall not access my ITS Blackboard account from outside of ITS, e.g. at home, in the residence halls, etc. without explicit permission.

  • You shall not access any ITS Partner Services (including but not limited to: Acuity, any Google Account belonging to ITS, Mediasite, Room Schedule, and Voicemail Manager) from outside of ITS, e.g. at home, in the residence halls, etc. without explicit permission. This does NOT include GitHub.

Conflict of Interest

To prevent you, the student, from being put in a difficult situation where your integrity is brought into question, you should avoid conflicts of interest wherever possible when at ITS. This includes, but is not limited to the following:

  • You shall not perform work in (provide support for) any course that you are currently enrolled in, or will be enrolled in in the near future.

  • You shall not knowingly impersonate an user who is enrolled as an instructor in any course that you are currently enrolled in, or will be enrolled in in the near future.

In the event that you encounter a situation that may pose a conflict of interest, please pass the issue to another available student assistant, or escalate the issue to a full-time staff member or your supervisor.

Applicability of Aforementioned Policies

The aforementioned policies apply to all ITS sites, services, and Partners, including but not limited to:

  • Blackboard (Production, Staging, and Testing)

  • Mediasite

  • Desk.com (Universal Inbox, Admin Panel, and Business Insights)

  • Acuity Scheduling

  • Room Schedule (Astra)

  • Voicemail Manager

  • Relay @ SDSU (capture.sdsu.edu)

  • Google (if using an ITS or ITS sponsored account)

  • Gitbook (if accessing SDSU ITS Content)

  • GitHub (if accessing SDSU ITS Repositories)

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