To open up a 'terminal' session from a computer running the 'macintosh' operating system, you must use a 'secure shell' (ssh) client.
If you are running MAC OS X, the ssh program is already on your computer. To use it, open up the 'Terminal' application, and type 'ssh cs.uml.edu' to connect to the main UML CS linux server.
To transfer files to/from the CS servers from a macintosh, you must use a 'scp' client. When utilizing scp, specify cs.uml.edu as the server to connect to, providing your class assignments do not require you to connect to a different system.
If you are using MAC OS X, you can use the built-in scp command (via the Terminal application) as shown here. You can also download and use this graphical scp application:
FUGU : Available at https://sourceforge.net/projects/fugussh/files/
When your windows 'ssh/scp/sftp' client connects to a remote server, it will check the authenticity of that host by looking at the server's public 'signature/key'. Therefore, the first time you connect to a specific ssh server, the ssh client will display the remote host's key and ask you if you wish to connect/accept it. Answering 'yes' to this will continue the connection.