Local Administrator Rights Policy

Policy Purpose

This policy is concerns the granting of local administration rights on University owned computing devices. Establishing and enforcing a local administrator policy is required for the University in order to align with UA System security and auditing mandates. 

Policy Statement

It shall be the policy of the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith to not allow users to be local administrators on University owned computing devices. 

Applicability

This policy applies to all users of University owned computers.

Definitions

Local Administrator rights – Local administrator rights give the user complete control of the computer’s configuration. Employees with administrator rights have the ability to install software and make other changes to vital systems on the computer.
Elevated rights - Rights granted that are above normal user rights. 

Policy Procedure

1. Users will not be granted local administrator rights on computing devices, except for the exclusions listed in part 8 below.
2. Users can request temporary local administrator rights by having a security application such as MakeMeAdmin installed that is used to temporarily grant local administrator rights.
3. Users who need local administrator rights to fulfill the duties of their job, and find that MakeMeAdmin or similar applications do not work for them, can fill out a request for local administrator rights. The user must give reasons for needing the local administrator rights, and the form must be signed by their Department Head or higher. The form will then be reviewed by the UAFS security committee which will grant or deny the request.
4. Users granted administrator privileges on a campus-owned computer agree to the following:
o You will not install unlicensed software (that is sold for cost) on a UAFS computer that has not been legally purchased for licensing by the University of Arkansas - Fort Smith.
o You will not purposely install illegal, malicious, or hostile software on a UAFS computer (for example, hacking software, malware, worms, viruses, etc) except for Faculty use of teaching IT security classes, and only when the computer is isolated from the campus network.
o You will be responsible for the installation of all unsupported free legal software (open source software, freeware, etc.).

Enforcement

o You will ensure that the standard computer configuration is maintained, including standard software and all other administrative accounts.
o You will not disable anti-virus systems and will remain diligent to abide by safe online practices in order to prevent malware from infecting the computer and spreading to other network systems.
o You will not downgrade, upgrade or change the configuration of campus-installed software without prior approval and instructions.
o You will ensure that your locally stored University data is backed up to another location (either a network share or a locally-connected removable drive).

Policy Management

This policy is managed by the IT department. The IT Director and appointed IT personnel are the primary administrators of this policy. The responsible executive is the VCFA.

Exclusions

Most IT department employees are exempt and are allowed to have and use local administrator rights in order to do their job. 

Effective and Approved Date

This internal policy was approved by Terry Meadows - Director of IT/CIO on 3/10/2023

Last Updated

This policy was updated by Terry Meadows – Director of IT/CIO on 11/20/2025 for accessibility.