Mobile Device Policy

SUNY Oneonta will provide a standard cell phone or mobile communications device to certain employees that have job responsibilities such that the inability to make timely contact with the employee would cause an interruption to the school’s core academic or business functions. An employee may also be eligible if they are routinely out of the office, in remote locations, or off campus, have no other means of communication, and timely communication is essential.

SUNY Oneonta will not provide stipends or other forms or reimbursement for personal plans. However, reimbursement for extraordinary business-related expenses incurred on a personal plan may be made by submitting a record of such expenses through the NY Standard Travel/Reimbursement Voucher form submitted to the campus Procurement office.

Rationale:

Cellular phones and other mobile devices have become commonplace. They offer mobility and accessibility that provide a great deal of convenience. SUNY Oneonta does not have the means to provide devices to all employees or even a large subset. Determining who should receive a campus-provided device or be reimbursed for business use of a personal device can be quite complicated. A majority of employees own a personal device that allows for a high volume of usage. Additional usage for business-related communications is unlikely to introduce additional cost to the employee. However, certain employees have job responsibilities that necessitate a high volume of relevant usage. In other cases, an employee may need to make critical day-to-day decisions requiring immediate attention. In other cases, a mobile device may be the only means of communications. In these cases, it is reasonable that SUNY Oneonta would provide a device.

In order to make the provisioning of devices consistent and administratively efficient, policies and procedures must be in place.

Applicability of the Policy

This policy applies to all employees.

Policy Elaboration

ITS Networking and Telecommunications will determine a standard device, plan, and carrier.

Campus-owned devices are intended only for SUNY Oneonta relevant business. State telephones may be used for incidental and necessary personal local calls that are of limited number and duration and do not conflict with the proper exercise of the duties of the State employee. However, any usage outside the standard plan amount will be the personal responsibility of the employee.

Cell phones covered by this policy are used to conduct SUNY Oneonta business and/or to create, receive, send, or store SUNY Oneonta data and/or education records of students and/or alumni. As a result, information contained on devices covered by this policy are also subject to Federal and State data maintenance and protection laws (e.g., FERPA, records retention requirements), as well as all SUNY Oneonta policies, including those pertaining to data security, acceptable computing use, and email. An employee receiving a SUNY Oneonta cell phone shall assist the institution in providing access to information about or contained on the cell phone covered by this policy in response to requests for such data or information by third parties as required by Federal and/or State law.

Any cell phone that has data capabilities must be secured based on current security standards including password protection and encryption.

Employees are reminded not to use cell phones while operating a vehicle or machinery of any kind.

If a campus-owned cell phone is stolen or missing, it must be reported immediately to the employee’s supervisor, the wireless device service provider, and to ITS Networking and Telecommunications.

Campus-owned cell phones must be turned in to ITS Networking and Telecommunications at the time employee leaves SUNY Oneonta service.

Any employee assigned a cellular device who fails to comply with this policy or with responsible use of the device will have phone plan suspended or revoked.

Definitions

None

Procedures

Application – to request a campus-owned mobile device, the appropriate Divisional Vice President submits to ITS Networking and Telecommunications the Mobile Device Departmental Request form. The form identifies the employee or department responsible for the device and its use and contains the account number that the cellular service will be billed back to.

Monthly statements

• ITS Networking and Telecommunications will, on a monthly basis, charge the department for all charges incurred by SUNY Oneonta for the use of the cellular device.
• It is the responsibility of the employee named on the request form as being responsible for the device to review the monthly detail to ensure that usage is consistent with this policy and that the device is not being used for non-SUNY Oneonta business.

Forms