Cablevision Policies

Description:

University Cablevision is provided as a non-profit service on the University of Georgia campus only and is paid by user fees budgeted through the University and its units not by charging members of the general public. As such University Cablevision does not have subscribers and is not available to the general public in the Athens-Clarke County community or beyond. It is the intent of the University to maintain the service as a non-profit service available on the university campus only, but the university recognizes that if its cable service is modified to become available to subscribers of the general public in Athens-Clarke County, the cable service could be subject to the franchising authority of Athens-Clarke County.

University Cablevision is overseen by the University Cable Policy Board and is operated by the Telecommunications Division of the Office of the CIO in conjunction with the Office of Instructional Support and Development (OISD) under the Vice President for Instruction. University Cablevision provides cable TV services to classrooms, offices, student housing, hotel rooms and other viewing locations on the University of Georgia campus. Funding for programming, maintenance and repair, overhead, replacement equipment and selected staff is derived from user fees charged university units and allocated to appropriate budgets within CIO and OISD. Additional support is derived from various university sources and funding initiatives.

The CIO Telecommunications Division is responsible for the campus cable plant and system distribution including contracting and maintenance of broadcast and satellite TV services approved by the Board and technical support for local channel signal distribution.

OISD is responsible for providing housing for CIO cable TV staff and selected administrative support; maintenance of selected headend distribution equipment related to its channels and services; policy and legal review on behalf of the Board, promotion and original program development for its channels.

The CIO Telecommunications Division and OISD jointly develop and maintain a general University Cablevision web site that includes a channel lineup, user support information and links to programming sources including web sites from UGA channel providers.

The UGA local channels administered, programmed and originated from various units on campus include:

• "The Georgia Center Channel" - Georgia Center for Continuing Education
• "Housing 12" - Residence Halls, Housing
• "The Family Housing Channel" - Family and Graduate Apartments, Housing
• "The Teleconference Channel" - OISD
• "The Instruction Channel" - OISD

Programming and policy for the above channels is developed by the channel provider and is subject to policies outlined below and general review by the University Cable Policy Board. New local channels may be created and approved by the Board for inclusion on University Cablevision .

The University Cable Policy Board, which reports to the CIO, establishes mission and policy, and strives to insure compliance and cooperation with university, local, state and federal agencies. The Board approves the yearly channel lineup after reviewing requests from the university community. New channels are added and existing channels dropped based on cost, system capacity, demand, and mission of University Cablevision (section 2E under Policies).

The Board includes voting representatives from the following units that have a special interest or involvement in telecommunications and cable services:

• Chair, (recommended by the board and appointed by the CIO)
• Housing , one administrative representative
• Residence Halls Association, one student representative
• Graduate and Family Apartments, one student representative
• Grady College of Journalism and Mass Com, one representative
• CIO Telecommunications Division, one representative
• Georgia Center for Continuing Education, one representative
• Office of Sr. VP for Finance and Administration, one representative
• University Public Affairs, one representative
• OISD, one representative
• Instructional Advisory Committee, 2 representatives (any two faculty members from the committee or selected by the committee from the faculty at large)

Additional representatives from any of these units who have a role in cable should attend and participate in board discussions but will not vote if an issue requires such.

A quorum of the voting Board members or their substitutes is required for decisions including votes via e-mail. Board representatives may serve renewable one-year terms and are selected from the unit represented. A chair is selected from the board/appointed by the CIO and serves a renewable one-year term. The Board meets at least once per semester including a late spring meeting to approve the channel lineup and drop fees for the coming academic year. Additional business may be conducted at called meetings or via e-mail.

The purpose and mission of University Cablevision:

• To provide educational, informational and entertainment programming to on-campus students in order to complement their overall collegiate experience
• To offer instructional programming that is targeted to a diverse community of learners
• To provide television resources for education and service to all faculty, staff and students
• To provide continuing education and life enrichment opportunities to a diverse community of adult learners
• To extend the educational opportunities of the university via distance education

Policies

1. 1- Advertising, underwriting, public information:
   1. All underwriting, advertising, public information, submitted for distribution on University Cablevision channels is subject to current policies and charges. Currently, University Cablevision accepts only underwriting and public service announcements.
   2. No public information or underwriting acknowledgement which is inconsistent with the purpose and mission of University Cablevision and the University of Georgia will be accepted. As such University Cablevision reserves the right to restrict all advertising, public information or underwriting acknowledgements to policy guidelines consistent with the educational mission of University Cablevision and the University of Georgia and will only allow the type of information necessary to help the University community make informed decisions about products and services. No messages will be accepted that promote illegal, unlawful activities or that are deceptive or in any way offensive to the University of Georgia's standing as an institution of learning.
   3. Underwriting and public information is accepted from all official university-related organizations and programs, as well as outside organizations/persons directly related to a function at the University of Georgia that is co-sponsored by an official on-campus agency.
   4. Underwriting and public information is accepted from organizations external to the university and its programs subject to 1-B above.
   5. All underwriting and public information is subject to review by the University Cable Policy Board.
2. General programming and channels:
   1. Varying viewpoints of controversial topics will be programmed provided they do not exceed the boundaries identified in section 1-B above and are consistent with the subject areas explored within selected programming.
   2. The nature of the programming will be comparable to Athens-area community cable franchises or collegiate-based cable TV nationwide.
   3. Requests for channels are subject to review and recommendation by the University Cable Policy Board as well as funding and technical limitations.
   4. Independent productions/bulletin board information targeted for insertion on Housing, Georgia Center and OISD channels are subject to review by the Board and are subject to polices and procedures developed by the channel provider. Generally, independent productions/bulletin board information (submitted by students or other on-campus individuals and organizations as well as individuals external to the university) should be sponsored by an official university-related organization and/or program and will be aired subject to 2A and B above and in selected time slots chosen by the channel provider.
   5. University Cablevision television and programming resources are scarce and limited. As such, the University of Georgia reserves the right to make reasonable decisions regarding allocation of programming, broadcast and cable resources. Decisions to carry particular channels will be made with reference to the mission of University Cablevision and the University of Georgia as well as requests from the University of Georgia community, and these decisions will be made in a fair and impartial manner.
      1. 1-International channels: Channels dedicated to one language , country or culture will be added if they meet one of the following criteria. There must be a major program of study in the foreign language at UGA or at least 25% of the residents of graduate and family housing are reported as being from the country of the channel origin or another country that speaks the language or are otherwise users of the language.
3. Charges/Uses of University Cablevision:
   1. All campus student residences including dorm rooms and apartment communities, faculty and staff offices, public viewing areas including lounges and other non-instructional spaces are subject to a monthly fee for cable charged to the unit responsible.
   2. Classrooms, seminar rooms, conferences rooms, laboratories and any other space designed as a group instruction learning environment are not subject to monthly charges.

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