VCOM Faculty Handbook

VCOM personnel may neither accept nor offer, either directly or indirectly, any gift or favor or loan to or from industry or industry representatives that is conducting or seeking to conduct business with the College even if the gift is of nominal value (zero-dollar amount). This provision also means that VCOM personnel may not accept any financial or other favors in exchange for privileged access by current or potential College vendors to College facilities or employees. VCOM personnel may not accept travel or accommodation stipends from pharmaceutical or device companies. If you have a question as to the acceptance of any item that might be considered a gift, you should contact the Office of Research and the Campus Dean’s office for clarification. This includes gifts from equipment and service providers, and pharmaceutical and biomedical device providers. Please see Policy #U015, VCOM Policy on Conflicts of Interest and Industry Relationships and Policy, and Policy #R013, VCOM Financial Conflicts of Interest in Research Policy, for additional information. Policy #R013 must also be reviewed by all research investigators and the accompanying Research Financial Conflict of Interest Disclosure Form and, when applicable, the Supplemental Research FCOI Disclosure Form must be signed with each extramural grant application. Both policies and forms can be found online in the VCOM Institutional Policy and Procedure Manual . Any gift or remuneration, other than research grants, made to VCOM or through a VCOM employee must be made to the Office of Development and follow the policies and procedures therein. Copyright Policy It is the policy of the College to respect the copyright protections provided by federal and state laws, including protections for digital materials and software. It is against College policy for faculty, staff or students to use College equipment or services to access, use, copy or otherwise reproduce or make available to others any copyright protected materials, including digital materials and software, except as permitted under copyright law (especially with respect to "fair use") or specific license. VCOM expects all members of the College community to follow prescribed procedures to determine the ownership of copyrights and manage copyrights owned by the College. Copyright is a legal right, grounded in the United States Constitution, that gives the owner of said copyright the exclusive rights to: • Reproduce (make copies of ) the work; and • Modify or prepare derivative works based on the work (Examples of derivative works include translations, transforming printed works into musicals or films, rearrangements of scores, and any other recast, transformation, or adaptation of a work); and • Distribute the work in any format by sale, publication, license, rental, or for free; and • Publicly perform or display the work; and • Authorize others to exercise some or all those rights VCOM regards any violation of the Copyright and Fair Use Policy as a serious offence. Violators of this policy are subject to VCOM’s disciplinary actions as prescribed in the College Catalog and Student Handbook , Faculty Handbook ; and the Administrative and Classified Staff Handbook . Intellectual Property of Instructional Materials Instructional materials created as a part of an employee’s position at VCOM is the intellectual property of VCOM. To carry out its mission, VCOM retains a non-exclusive, no-cost license to use, reuse, reproduce, display, distribute, and make derivative works (such as compilations, archives, or composite works) of instructional materials for the education of its students. Instructional materials may include syllabi, course descriptions, reading lists, assignments, slides, lecture notes, lab exercises, tools, simulations, multimedia, web pages, exams, student assignments, and recorded discussions. In accordance with academic custom, VCOM will acknowledge the authors of these works unless the authors request otherwise. Policy R005, Intellectual Properties and Agreements Policies and Procedures, provides additional information on the ownership and use of intellectual property. VCOM reserves the right to terminate employees who knowingly violate copyright policies.

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