Employee Handbook
Chapter 8- EMPLOYEE CONDUCT AND WORK ETHICS
8.10 Return of property
Employees are all responsible for University property, equipment, or written information issued to them or in their possession and control. Employees must return all University property immediately upon employment termination. AUI may also take all action deemed appropriate to recover or protect its property.
8.11 Conflict of interest policy
Conflicts of interest occur when employees (staff and faculty) are in a position to influence decisions on policy or purchases where they may directly or indirectly receive financial benefit or give improper advantage to relatives and associates. Conflicts of commitment arise when employees are involved in outside activities that substantially interfere with their primary responsibility to the University.
AUI expects all employees to exercise good judgement; professional commitment, and the highest ethical standards in their extramural activities if those activities can in any way affect the University. Every employee has an obligation to avoid any activity, agreement, business investment or interest, or other situation that could be construed to be in conflict with the University's interest or to interfere with the employee's duty to serve the University.
No employee shall have a direct or indirect interest in any business enterprise that is a competitor of the University or has dealings with the University as a supplier. An employee in a position to influence a University business decision for which he or she may receive material benefit should disclose the nature of the conflict to his or her immediate supervisor and, where possible, remove himself/herself from involvement in the decision. If the individual continues to participate in the decision process, discussion with supervisors and documentation of the potential conflict should be presented.
No employee shall seek or receive, for personal or any other person's gain, any payment, whether for services or otherwise, loan (except from a bank), gift or discount of more than nominal value or entertainment that goes beyond common courtesies usually associated with accepted business practice from any business enterprise that is a competitor of the University or has current or known prospective dealings with the University as a supplier.
No employee shall, for personal or any other person's gain, deprive the University of any opportunity for benefit that could be construed as related to any existing or reasonably anticipated future activity of the University.
No employee shall, for personal or any other person's gain, make use of or disclose confidential information learned as a result of employment by the University. Any information that has been acquired in connection with sponsored research by University members cannot be withheld from the sponsoring organization(s) for personal benefit.
No employee shall have any outside interest that materially interferes with the required time or attention that the employee must devote to the University. Employees should not undertake or orient activities to serve the needs of an outside organization at the expense of fulfilling the mission of the University.
Employees authorized to get involved in consulting activities from which they profit financially, are not in conflict as long as University resources (laboratories, studios, equipment, computational facilities, and/or human resources) are not used, and such activities do not unduly interfere with the time and energy committed by the individuals to their primary responsibilities to the University.
The University actively encourages involvement in professional organizations, panels, advisory commissions, government, charitable and community organizations. However, such involvement should not become so dominant that University members no longer effectively satisfy their responsibilities to the University.
No employee shall act or be involved in any situation that potentially conflicts with the principle that this policy is intended to implement.
8.11.1 Exceptions
Specific exceptions may be made by the President upon application in writing by the employee. Such exceptions shall be wholly discretionary and shall be adopted at such times and under such conditions as will serve the interests of the University.
8.11.2 Standards for compliance
Prohibitions of this policy should be construed broadly rather than narrowly. A conflict of interest may be deemed to exist even though it may not result in financial loss to the University, regardless of the motive of the employee involved. If a possible conflict of interest arises, the employee is encouraged to discuss the matter with the appropriate Vice President designated by the President to determine whether such a conflict in fact exists and, if so, how it may be resolved.
8.11.3 Reports and investigation
The President may give instructions to investigate any suspected violation of this policy by any University member.
Violation of this policy may be grounds for disciplinary action. The University will make the final determination for disciplinary action. Many actions are available and may be taken consistent and commensurate with the nature of the proven acts of misconduct. Examples include:
Probation
Suspension
Salary reduction
Rank reduction
Termination of employment
The vice president, dean or director of each division of the University shall be responsible for appropriate dissemination of this policy.
8.12 Code of ethics for computing
Because we are an academic community, the faculty, students and staff of AUI honour intellectual property, respect the privacy of data, and recognize the rights of others. Individuals who are given access to University computing resources incur the responsibility to use those resources in an ethical manner.
The code of ethics requires all computing activities performed on University equipment to be legal and ethical. The code is based on adherence to copyright laws and respect for intellectual labour and creativity as vital elements of the academic enterprise.
The following list of violations expresses the essence of the ethics code. Those who commit any of these violations may be subject to disciplinary action.
It is a violation of the AUI code of ethics for computing to:
- Steal passwords or log onto someone else’s account;
- Attempt to gain access to computing resources for which you are not authorized or via means not authorized;
- Give others access (via password or other means) to computing resources to which they are not entitled;
- Read, execute, modify, or delete any file belonging to someone else without explicit permission from the owner, even if the file is unprotected;
- Gain privileges or resources beyond your authorized limits; use a system for unauthorized purposes, such as advertising for a commercial organization or running a business;
- Introduce damaging software such as viruses;
- Damage hardware, such as by pounding, kicking, or moving it to another location;
- Send mass electronic mailings. (This consumes large amounts of disk space. There are alternatives far more efficient. Any distribution to more than 25 recipients must be cleared in advance with ITS);
- Harass others by sending annoying, obscene, libellous, or threatening messages;
- Slow down any system by deliberately running wasteful jobs or playing games other than at authorized times;
- Attempt to crash a system or exploit weaknesses in security; or
- Make unauthorized copies of software that is copyrighted; unless you have explicit instructions from the owner.
IF YOU HAVE A CONCERN OR COMMENT ABOUT THE CONTENT OF THIS STAFF HANDBOOK, PLEASE DIRECT THEM TO THE HUMAN RESOURCES OFFICE.
WISHING YOU A SUCCESSFUL AND REWARDING CAREER AT AL AKHWAYN UNIVERSITY IN IFRANE
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