Introduction

The University of South Carolina School of Law website is an important communications mechanism. The University of South Carolina School of Law website includes the main School of Law website, separate School of Law centers and program sites and student journal sites. Collectively, they represent the University of South Carolina School of Law to prospective students, alumni, the School of Law community and the general public.

This policy outlines the acceptable use of School of Law web resources. It also protects students, faculty and staff from inappropriate use of School of Law web resources. Also, students, faculty, and staff that create, design, update, and publish information for the School of Law website or School of Law affiliated websites must operate in accordance with the University Acceptable Use of Information Technology (IT 1.06), specifically the following:

All users of University information technology resources must adhere to applicable state and federal laws, statutes, and regulations; must comply with applicable policies, standards and procedures as defined by the University; must understand and acknowledge that information technology assets and data are for authorized use only; and must not compromise the confidentiality, integrity and availability of these assets and data.

University Branding and Templates

All departments and organizations publishing information on the School of Law website are required to use the official School of Law website templates and branding in accordance with the University Policy for all web pages within the School of Law website, as well as separate center, program, and student journal sites.

School of Law Domains and Websites

Internet domain names are used to identify a business, organization, institution, or other entity in cyberspace. A domain name is a unique identifier that allows the creation of e‐mail addresses, web pages, and other Internet‐based services. .edu internet domains are assigned to degree‐granting educational institutions. sc.edu is the internet domain name assigned to the University of South Carolina. Likewise, the sub domain law.sc.edu has been assigned to the School of Law. The law.sc.edu site is overseen by the School of Law Information Technology Web Services Department.

School of Law center websites, such as the Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough Center on Professionalism, the Children’s Law Center, and the Rule of Law Collaborative, which are funded and/or sponsored by the School of Law, have a sc.edu domain. Likewise, the center sites’ information and design are overseen by the School of Law Academic Technology Web Services Department.

Other School of Law sponsored sites such as the Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, the South Carolina Law Review and the South Carolina Journal of International Law and Business have .org domains. These sites are overseen by the School of Law Academic Technology Web Services department using the School of Law’s third party website hosting vendor account. These organization and student journal sites are updated by the organization and journal members. However, they are responsible for adhering to University and School of Law Acceptable Use policies as well as University and School of Law branding policies. Exceptions to the rule are previously created symposium sites such as the Barnes Symposium web sites.

Any School of Law student organization site must have a sc.edu domain and must work within the School of Law Academic Technology Web Services Department’s guidelines, which includes the ability to host their sites using the School of Law’s third party hosted vendor account.

School of Law faculty instructional websites, similar faculty multimedia materials or blogs are not University or School of Law property and are thus exempt from this policy.

Website Content and Use Policy

The School of Law reserves the right to remove any web page on an official School of Law site or affiliated School of Law site that violates federal, state, or local law; that violates School of Law web policy or University Acceptable Use policy; that contains inappropriate content; or that is a result of improper use. The School of Law reserves the right to effect such removal without prior notice, although notice will be provided in a timely manner after removal.

It is deemed improper use to access or attempt to access information that belongs to another user or for which no authorization has been granted, to make or attempt to make unauthorized changes to information on the School of Law website or affiliated School of Law websites, or to take any action intended to jeopardize or compromise any aspect of the School of Law or School of Law affiliated websites. The School of Law reserves the right to terminate web server access privileges and individual user accounts of those found engaged in improper use of School of Law resources.

Online Privacy

The University of South Carolina School of Law’s website does not collect personal information about users when users visit our website unless a user affirmatively chooses to make such information available to us through electronic forms or contact us via email links.

If a user chooses to share personal information with us — by sending us an email message or filling out an electronic form with personal information — we will use the information only for the purposes the user requests or authorizes. We will not disclose the information to government agencies or other third parties, unless required to do so by state or federal law. The University of South Carolina School of Law’s website provides links to external sites and resources.

We do not control these sites and resources and are not responsible for their availability, content, or delivery of services. In particular, external sites are not bound by the School of Law’s online privacy policy; they may have their own policies or none at all.

(Updated 11 March 2019)