POLICY STATEMENTS
Intellectual Property
Southwestern Christian College supports the development, production, and dissemination of intellectual property by its faculty members, staff and students. Intellectual property includes computer programs, literary works, musical works and distance education course development.
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Intellectual Property created, made, or originated by a student will be the sole and exclusive property of the student author or inventor, except as he or she may voluntarily choose to transfer such property to the college.
The college will own the property that was created by a student acting as an employee of the college and working on a project as part of responsibilities as an employee or when a student is assisting a faculty member on a project designated as joint work.
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Intellectual Property created, made, or originated by a staff member in connection with his or her required job duties will be the sole and exclusive property of the college. The staff member will own Copyright of works and Patents of inventions created apart from his or her designated job responsibilities or as part of professional development activities apart from designated work tasks.
Use of Intellectual Property
Material created for ordinary teaching use in the classroom and in division programs, such as syllabi, assignments, and tests, will remain the property of the faculty author, but the university will be permitted to use such material for internal instructional, educational, and administrative purposes, including satisfying requests of accreditation agencies for faculty-authored syllabi and course descriptions.
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In any agreement transferring copyright for such works to a publisher, faculty authors are expected to preserve the rights for the institution to use such works for internal instructional, educational, and administrative purposes.
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Work created by students in connection with course assignments or in response to surveys administered by the College will be available for the College to use for internal instructional, educational, and administrative purposes, including the assessment of student learning outcomes.
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The Faculty Senate will administer and monitor the Intellectual Property standards of the College. Periodic review of the policy will be directed by the Faculty Senate. The resolution of disputes and issues will be the responsibility of the Faculty Senate.
Southwestern Christian College owns Intellectual Property in the following circumstances:
The college expressly directs a faculty member to create a specified work, or the work is created as a specific requirement of employment or as an assigned institutional duty that may, for example, be included in a written job description or an employment agreement.
The faculty author or inventor voluntarily transfers the Intellectual Property, in whole or in part, to the college. Such transfer will be in the form of a written document signed by the faculty author or inventor.
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The college contributes to a "joint work". The institution can exercise joint ownership when it has contributed specialized services and facilities to the production of the work that goes beyond what is traditionally provided to faculty members generally in the preparation of their course materials. Such arrangement is to be agreed to in writing, in advance, and in full conformance with other provisions of this policy. The granting of sabbaticals, junior leaves and professional development grants by the college will not constitute grounds for “joint work” unless specified by the college in the terms of the sabbatical, leave or grant.
The Intellectual Property results from externally funded research where ownership by the college conforms to the requirements of the funding agency.