Guidelines

* Participation and Use (How to use rfanet)

* rfanet Etiquette

* The Rules (How NOT to use rfanet)

* Disclaimer and Legal Rules

rfanet is a forum for Association members to share information and discuss academic life within a culture of respect, anti-racism and equity.

The Executive urges members who participate in the discussions on rfanet to focus responses on the statements made rather than on the individual(s) who made them. Respectful comments on previous messages, agreeing or differing, are welcome.

Consider the option of replying to the sender only. Please broadcast to the entire list only those messages which you think would be of interest to the entire membership.

Consider the benefits of reading what is posted and learning about the people in your union. Exercise your freedom to engage in debate, but remember that those on the receiving end are your colleagues.  Do not engage in conduct that is offensive to and/or disrespectful and dismissive of particular groups and/or individuals.  The goal is to make our campus environment inclusive and respectful of difference.

By joining and using rfanet, you agree that you have read and will follow the rules and guidelines set below.

Additionally, we ask that you take a moment to acquaint yourself with your rights and responsibilities as a computing user at Ryerson. To read the details go to: http://www.ryerson.ca/acs/usersguide/

 

Participation and Use (How to Use rfanet)

RFA created and offers this discussion list as a service to members. The purpose of this service is to foster discussion of university and faculty related topics among RFA members and to provide a means for announcing RFA-related business. Examples of how rfanet can be used include discussions, questions or issues related to the Ryerson Faculty Association, and RFA-related programs or new publications.  rfanet is also an ideal forum to discuss University or academic-related news in the popular and trade press.

Listserv Etiquette

Please ensure that members do not get a large volume of “Out of Office” replies by either unsubscribing temporarily or setting your auto-reply rules to respond only to messages that are sent specifically to you and not to the list.

  • Include a signature tag on all messages. Include your name, affiliation, location, and e-mail address.
  • State concisely and clearly the specific topic of the comments in the subject line. This allows members to respond more appropriately to your posting and makes it easier for members to search the archives by subject.
  • Include only the relevant portions of the original message in your reply. If possible, delete the header information, and put your response before the original posting.
  • Send messages such as “thanks for the information” or “me, too” to individuals–not to the entire list. Do this by using your e-mail application’s forwarding option and typing in or cutting and pasting in the e-mail address of the individual to whom you want to respond.
  • Do not send administrative messages such as remove me from the list. Please contact the list manager regarding these types of messages (see above).
  • Warn other list subscribers of lengthy messages either in the subject line or at the beginning of the message body with a line that says “Long Message.”
  • You can post by “replying” to someone else’s posting. Changing the subject line to the name of your topic lets others know you are beginning a new discussion. Leaving the subject line alone informs others you are responding to a previous post. If possible, remove any existing text from the body of the e-mail before writing your message. The “text chain” of messages can become very long and difficult to read.

The Rules (How NOT to Use rfanet)

Protect Student’s Privacy

Do not include personal information about students, such as student numbers, in messages you send to rfanet.   Specific guidelines on The Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) can be found on line at http://www.ryerson.ca/about/generalcounsel/infoprivacy/faculty/

 

Negative Remarks

This list is not meant to be a platform on which to rant or to bash an RFA member you do not like. Do not harass, stalk, embarrass, use abusive language, or attempt to intimidate or intentionally cause distress or discomfort upon another user of the List.

Do not transmit text or material that disparages or insults any individual or group as per Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms, and the Ontario Human Rights Code, which in part reads “Every person has a right to equal treatment with respect to employment without discrimination because of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, age, record of offences, marital status, family status or disability”.

Do not make any threat of any nature, directly or implied, including but not limited to threats of litigation or of bodily harm or racist and sexist  language of a prejudiced, violent or threatening nature directed at another individual or group of individuals.

Focus discussion

Please keep your postings focused on the subject header. If you would like to make a new point, please start a new thread with a new subject line.

No E-mail Harvesting

Do not harvest e-mails for spam or spam-like purposes, or for any type of “mass-mailing” and/or “bulk e-mail.” Since e-mail harvesting violates every possible privacy and community consideration, violations will result in immediate and permanent expulsion from the list.

Personal or contact information of list participants seen on this list is intended solely for the use of this list, and should not be distributed to a third party. For example, if you believe a list participant could benefit from the services offered by a third party, contact that list participant directly with the contact information of the third party.

No E-mail Attachments

Be aware that all attachments are removed automatically.

No Marketing/Advertising

Do not post commercial messages or solicit services, including the sale or rent of personal property. The cyberspace term for this is spamming. Contact people directly with products and services that you believe would help them, or consider using free, community classifieds websites such as

craigslists http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites or

Kijiji   http://toronto.kijiji.ca/

Software Sharing

This list is not to be used to share illegal software; it’s illegal and it’s unfair to the people who spend their time creating the software.

Subjects Generating More Heat Than Light (see Negative Remarks)

Occasionally, a subject will come up that generates numerous posts because of its controversial nature. On these occasions, do not attack others. The discussions on the lists are meant to stimulate conversation (and debate?). If members feel that posts on a controversial issue are contrary to the objectives and rules of the rfanet, they can request the Executive to end the discussion thread. The Executive will consider such requests at its earliest meeting.

No abuse

All defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, and offensive language and/or illegal materials are strictly prohibited.

Disclaimer and Legal Rules

This list is created by and provided as a service of the RFA.  The RFA accepts no responsibility for the opinions and information posted on this site by others.

Do not post any information or other material protected by copyright without the permission of the copyright owner.

In addition, the posting party grants RFA and users of this list the nonexclusive right and license to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print and use such information or other material.

RFA reserves the right to terminate access to any user who does not abide by these guidelines.

Rfanet use Committee to Deal with Violations of the rfanet Protocol

All violations of the rfanet protocol set out above are to be dealt with by a three person rfanet use Committee comprising the Chair of the Equity Issues Committee of the RFA and two members of the RFA appointed by the Executive.

The Committee will be appointed for a two year term.

The Committee may on a case by case basis appoint an additional person if needed.

 

DISCIPLINARY ACTION/SUSPENSION

Any eligible subscriber who believes another subscriber has violated any of the rules may register their complaint in writing to the rfanet use Committee or the Executive.

If the eligible subscriber has notified the Executive, the President or any member of the Executive, the complaint will be immediately directed to the Disciplinary Committee.

In the event that the Executive believes that any subscriber to rfanet has violated or failed to abide by the rules set forth above, such person may be immediately suspended from the rfanet without warning. The matter will then be referred, in writing, to the rfanet     use Committee.

The Committee will forward the complaint to the user(s) who shall be provided with an opportunity to respond to the complaint in writing within ten (10) working days from the date of notification;

Within ten working days after receiving the response from the user, the rfanet use Committee shall determine whether any suspended user(s) or any user(s) about which the Executive or the Committee has otherwise been notified did in fact violate or fail to abide by the Rules and Guidelines set forth.

If is it determined that the user(s) did violate or fail to abide by the terms of the policy, the following actions shall be taken by the rfanet use Committee:

For the first violation the user(s) will be given a warning and if they agree to abide by the terms of the warning shall be permitted to return to rfanet.

In the event of a subsequent violation the user(s) shall be removed from rfanet.

The user can appeal a decision of the Committee to the Executive in writing and the Executive will render the final decision. In such a case all members of the rfanet use Committee will recuse themselves.

Any user removed from rfanet may petition the rfanet use Committee for reinstatement after twelve months.

Should the Committee determine the user not be reinstated, the user can appeal the decision of the Committee to the Executive in writing and the Executive will render the final decision. In such a case all members of the rfanet use Committee will recuse themselves.