Student Housing Policies
and Procedures
581-2392 • McMahon Center 111
housing@cameron.edu
24 Hour Line – 581-2391
Director – 581-2392
North Shepler Hall Director – 581-2915
South Shepler Hall Director – 581-2916
General Information
Your Student Housing Staff
The RESIDENT ASSISTANT (RA) plays a vital role on the floor and can be your immediate source of help and information in Student Housing. The RA’s orient residents to the services and regulations of Student Housing and the University. Although the RA’s are responsible for enforcing the Student Housing rules and University policies, their main role is not one of a disciplinarian. The RA’s are your friends; they are concerned with your emotional, academic and overall well-being. Your RA is ready and willing to help you with problems at any time. It is good to keep in mind, however, that the RA’s are full-time students just like you, so be considerate of their time off duty.
The CUSTODIAL STAFF is made up of employees hired to maintain the cleanliness in public areas, halls & lobbies. The custodian’s job is more pleasant and your floor is more attractive if you do your share to keep the areas clean and show consideration and kindness toward the custodial staff.
The HALL DIRECTORS provide counseling, guidance, and assistance in activities as well as take care of the daily administrative work in the halls. They also determine and oversee disciplinary measures taken on residents who violate the policies of the residence halls. Each Hall Director has posted office hours.
The DIRECTOR OF STUDENT HOUSING provides leadership for the daily operations of the Office of Student Housing, along with providing counseling, guidance, and assistance to residents. He/she is available in the McMahon Center and lives on-site.
Meningococcal Disease
Meningococcal disease is a rare but potentially fatal bacterial infection. Approximately 45 cases of the disease are reported each year in Oklahoma, and the State Department of Health recommends vaccinations for college freshmen who live in dormitories/apartments. All tenants received information on the disease and vaccination as required by Section 3243 of Title 70, of the Oklahoma Statutes. Please contact your personal healthcare provider or the Comanche County Health Department for more information.
Student Housing Association
All students residing in Student Housing are members of the Student Housing Association, or SHA. SHA is a great way to get involved!
Purpose – The Student Housing Association’s function is to serve as the voice of Cameron University residents and provide quality programming to Cameron University residents.
Executive Council – The Executive Council will serve as the decision-making body of SHA and will be voted on by the residents.
President – shall preside over SHA meetings and appoint chairpersons of any special committees.
Vice-President – performs the duties of the President in his/her absence.
Secretary/Treasurer – records minutes of all meetings and is responsible for the SHA account in conjunction with the SHA advisor.
SGA Representative – attends and votes at all SGA meetings.
Area Representatives –
Shepler Center – 1 representative from both North Shepler and South Shepler will serve and vote on the Executive Council.
Cameron Village – 1 representative from each building (A/B, C/D, E/F) will serve and vote on the Executive Council.
Advisor – The advisor of the Student Housing Association will be the Director of Student Housing or his or her duly appointed representative.
Programming – SHA will provide at least two all-encompassing programs per semester for the residents of Cameron University.
Meetings – SHA will meet once per month as set by the President and the Director of Student Housing.
Changes – Any proposed changes to this constitution must be submitted to the Director of Student Housing in writing, and must be approved by a 2/3 majority of the Executive Council.
Residential Network Policy
Background Information
Cameron University has an Internet connection to OneNet (the Internet Service Provider for State of Oklahoma agencies). The Residential Network (ResNET) has a 45 Mbps connection to the campus network as well as to the Internet. With over 400 residents on campus and 45 Mbps of bandwidth available, bandwidth limitations and classifications are a must. Internet service is offered to students at no additional charge.
Equipment that connects to the campus network as well as to ResNet follow the OneNet Acceptable Use Policy as well as the Cameron University Computer Use Policy (https://www.cameron.edu/policies).
Bandwidth Policy
Bandwidth refers to the amount of information that can flow up and down the network.
Most residents use very little bandwidth as they browse the web, send e-mail and download an occasional file. In the past, about 2% of the residents would use over 90% of the available bandwidth causing slowdowns and poor performance for everyone.
A bandwidth controller device as well as a firewall are in use on the residential network. The bandwidth controller monitors all inbound and outbound network traffic. It can identify and prioritize network traffic to provide a fair and equitable amount of bandwidth for all residents. This means that the resident who wants to download music or movies will be extremely limited so that the bandwidth for all others is not degraded. We now classify many of the “Peer-to-peer” applications such as Bit Torrent, iMesh, Gnutella, Kaaza, Morpheus, etc as entertainment traffic and it is given a much lower priority than web browsing and e-mail.
Information Technology Services has identified and cataloged the different types of traffic that move across the network; set priorities for the different types and where the traffic goes to or originates from. At any given time, ITS may need to change the way certain services or types of traffic are cataloged and what level of service each one needs.
Virtually all network traffic from ResNet to official Cameron University servers is untouched. There are no controls and no need to shape this, as it is “educational” traffic.
All normal web traffic is given a high priority! Browsing the web is done by every resident, and nothing is as frustrating as waiting for a web page to load. We give web traffic a special designation allowing it to have priority over other applications.
As long as bandwidth is available, each resident will receive a maximum bandwidth of 3 Mbps inbound (download) and 256 Kbps outbound (upload). A minimum bandwidth of 28 Kbps will be guaranteed to each resident, as long as overall bandwidth is available. The bandwidth settings (except for the guaranteed minimum) are equivalent to local Cable Modem service. This policy allows everyone a “fair and equitable” amount of bandwidth. Maximum bandwidth may be changed without notice.
Peer to Peer (P2P) Policy
Peer to Peer (P2P) is given the lowest priority and is also heavily limited. This means there will be extremely slow downloads and problems connecting with other peers; however, the P2P traffic is not “Educational” by its very nature and is considered to be almost entirely illegal. P2P is an incredible consumer of bandwidth, and no matter how much bandwidth is available, it would never be enough. In the past, P2P traffic (Bit Torrent, Morpheus, Kaaza, Napster, Gnutella, AudioGalaxy, etc.) consumed such quantities of bandwidth that the legitimate educational uses of not only the residential network, but also the total Cameron University network suffered.
Regarding the legality of P2P traffic, if Cameron University receives any violations from the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), MPA (Motion Picture Association), or any other industries, those violations will be investigated, and all documentation will be turned over to Student Housing / Student Affairs.
Unclassified or Non-Educational Network Traffic
In some cases, the bandwidth controller is not able to fully catalog what traffic is being seen, so more investigation may be necessary to determine if the traffic is violating policy. There may also be cases where residents are able to bypass bandwidth policies. If a resident bypasses bandwidth policy intentionally, the incident will be investigated as a computer use violation. In any instance where traffic does not appear to be educational or is harmful, residents will be warned about their activities and asked to conform to all policies. If the resident still does not comply within the time allotted in the warning, network connectivity will not be allowed from the resident’s room and network access to the rest of the campus may be denied as well until the resident decides to stop their activities or cleanup his or her computer if it is infected or has malicious software installed. In the event that malicious, harmful, or nuisance traffic is detected, the resident’s network port may need to be turned off immediately in order to investigate the problem or to help maintain a healthy network.
Authentication
Residents will be required to supply username / password credentials when initiating web sessions.
Routers/Wireless Routers and Access Points
Each room has one network port. If residents need more than one network port, ITS recommends the use of network switches rather than routers.
Wireless access points and routers should not be installed in resident rooms if at all possible.
For wireless information and policies, visit http://wireless.cameron.edu
Troubleshooting Information
Residents can send complaints or requests to Student Housing. Information Technology Services is only responsible for troubleshooting network port connectivity. ITS will use a tool to verify that network connectivity appears to be working. This may include using a network test device or a laptop. If a resident requests that an ITS technician work on his or her computer, or the resident has officially turned in a problem into Student Housing, the technician may agree, but is not required, to help the resident by working on his or her network equipment (desktop, laptop, etc.). By turning in a trouble incident or by requesting a technician’s assistance, the technician is not responsible or liable for anything that may cause more problems to the equipment.
Message from Information Technology Services
Please remember that Information Technology Services strives to maintain a fair and equitable use of bandwidth. Further, we work daily to keep our network tuned and performing at peak! We continually monitor performance, update hardware and software, and analyze network traffic to make sure no single program that is non-educational in nature interferes with your legitimate educational use of our network.
