Rensselaer's varied computing environment provides superior educational advantages, and using your RCS account for non-educational purposes, such as keeping in touch with family and friends, is fine as long as you keep Rensselaer's Conditions of Use agreement in mind.
However, some students misuse their computer privileges and use the campus computing facilities with malicious intent. As a result, one of my roles as the Rensselaer Postmaster is to investigate complaints of electronic mail forgery, harassment, chain mail, e-mail bombings, and other similar abuses of Rensselaer's computing provileges. These acts all violate the RCS Conditions of Use agreement, which you should have read and signed when you received your RCS computer account. (Additionally, please refer to the URL http://www.rpi.edu/web/comec for more information on Rensselaer's Electronic Citizenship policy.)
Chain mail involves someone sending a message to, say, twenty other people, with instructions that each of them in turn send the same message to twenty more people, and so on. Even so-called "worthwhile" requests to forward chain mail are ethics violations; additionally, most of them are frauds. For example, you will undoubtedly see chain mail about children suffering from cancer wanting get-well cards (this particular scam is at least ten years old), or that the American Cancer Society will donate three cents for every header sent on via chain mail. You may also receive chain mail informing you of the "Good Times" virus, complete with an official-looking warning from some federal agency, etc.
We cannot emphasize strongly enough the unnecessary burden that sending chain mail places on the campus' mail server resources. So please! If you ever receive chain mail from outside the university, "just say no" and delete it immediately. Contrary to common belief, nothing "bad" will happen to you if you delete the chain mail. And if you ever receive chain mail from a user within the university, please forward the entire message, including its full headers, to postmaster@rpi.edu.
(As a postscript to this, I gratefully acknowledge those Rensselaer students who already recognize their responsibility in this issue, as well as the risks of passing on chain mail, and who have voluntarily taken the exact course of action mentioned above, by forwarding any chain mail messages they've received along to me, the Postmaster. To those of you in this category, many thanks! And to the rest of our users, let these folks act as a good role model.)
Always remember to use your RCS account responsibly. For example, you should be very cautious about leaving yourself logged on to your RCS account, or leaving your computer unattended for even a few minutes. In the time it takes to go to the restroom, or to run back to your dorm room to get a book, some other user could easily access and tamper with your files, or use your account to send abusive or harassing e-mail, or perform a number of other "harmless pranks" that could get you in trouble -- and not the person who actually did it.
Such "innocent" pranks are not taken lightly, and incidents involving the misuse of information technology are reported to the Dean of Students. Some of these incidents lead to legal action; other result in campus disciplinary procedures. In any event, it's hardly worth risking your entire college education for the sake of playing a little joke on someone. Remember, as a computer user here at Rensselaer, you have access to a powerful computing environment, and as such, you have the obligation to use that environment responsibly.
If you have any questions, please direct electronic mail to postmaster@rpi.edu, or refer to the URL http://www.rpi.edu/Computing/Consulting/Email/pm.html.
Thank you!
...The RCS Postmaster
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