E-MAIL AND MASS COMMUNICATIONS

About This Policy

Policy Statement

North Central University has established e-mail as an official means of communication with employees and students.

An official North Central University e-mail address is assigned to and required for all students and employees. Account sharing is prohibited. The university assigns accounts to individuals and prohibits accounting sharing unless specifically authorized by IT. All users are solely responsible for all functions performed from accounts assigned to them.

Eligibility to access or to use university e-mail services is a privilege granted at the discretion of the university. This privilege is subject to the conditions of use identified in Acceptable Use of Information Technology policy.

The university has the right to send official communications to the university e-mail address.

The university sends official university communications to employees and students by e-mail to an account provisioned by the university with the full expectation that such e-mails will be read by the recipient on a frequent, consistent, and timely basis. A student’s or employee’s failure to receive and read university communications in a timely manner does not absolve that student from knowing and complying with the content of such communications.

The official e-mail address will be used for all university e-mail correspondence lists, for populating lists for classes, and for the official online directories and services. Official communications from university offices will be directed to the official university e-mail account. Accordingly, users are presumed to have received all official university e-mail messages sent to their official university e-mail address.

If an individual has both a student and employee affiliation, the university will provision a separate e-mail box for each affiliation. Employee e-mail services will be provided only while a user is employed by or enrolled at the university. Exceptions may be granted for conditions such as e-mail extensions for emeritus status, retirements, etc.

Personal e-mail

The use of personal e-mail accounts for university business and for university communication is expressly prohibited.

Auto-forwarding – students

Students may elect to redirect or auto-forward e-mail sent to their university e-mail address. Students who redirect e-mail from their official University e-mail address to another address do so at their own risk. If e-mail is lost as a result of forwarding, it does not absolve the student from the responsibilities associated with communications sent to their official university e-mail address.

The university does not assume any risk for email forwarded to a personal account. The university is not responsible for any issues that may negatively impact timely access to university e-mail that you forward to another address. Encountering such issues does not absolve students of the responsibility to know and comply with the content of official communications sent to the student’s official university e-mail account.

Auto-forwarding – employees

University employees are prohibited from either redirecting or auto-forwarding e-mail sent to their university e-mail address. Automation tools such as auto-forwarding, POP, IMAP etc., to move e-mail from a university managed e-mail system is only permissible to internally-administered university e-mail systems.

Manually forwarding university e-mail that contains information classified as university high-risk is only permissible for valid business purposes and appropriate security precautions such as e-mail encryption must be taken.

Confidentiality and security

Although the university does not monitor e-mail content routinely, users must not assume that e-mail content will remain private and confidential. A user’s expectation of privacy in e-mails and other information systems is defined and limited by the university’s Acceptable Use of Information Technology policy. In addition, e-mail can be altered or forwarded by a recipient without the sender’s knowledge, may also be discoverable in litigation or may be disclosed to comply with a subpoena.

Users may not access, use, or disclose personal or confidential information without appropriate authorization, and must take necessary precautions to protect confidentiality of personal or confidential information, regardless whether the information is maintained on paper or is found in email or other electronic records.

Other prohibited usage

• Unlawful activities
• Commercial purposes not under the auspices of the university
• Personal financial gain (except as permitted under applicable academic personnel policies)
• Uses that violate other university or campus policies or guidelines
• Use of email as file storage

Use of mass e-mail

Mass e-mail is restricted to information that (i) pertains to the majority of the recipients, (ii) is critical or time sensitive, and (iii) meets one or more of the following standards:

• Alerts the campus community to situations about health and safety risks, as defined in the university crisis and emergency modification procedures
• Provides information essential to the operation or execution of business
• Notifies the campus community about changes in university governance, policy, and practice
• Communicates important information from the university senior leadership

University e-mail users must not:

• Send or forward chain letters or their equivalents in other services.
• Spam, (exploiting electronic communications systems to amplify the widespread distribution of unsolicited electronic messages).
• Letter-bomb, (sending an extremely large message or send multiple electronic messages to one or more recipients with the intent to interfere with the recipients’ use of electronic communications systems and services).
• Intentionally engage in other practices such as denial of service attacks that impede the availability of electronic communications services.
  

Enforcement and restrictions

Use of university e-mail services may be restricted or rescinded by the university at its discretion when required by and consistent with law; when there is substantiated reason to believe that violations of law or university policies have taken place; when there are compelling circumstances; or under time-dependent, critical operational circumstances.

Violations of this policy will be handled under normal university disciplinary procedures applicable to the relevant persons or departments. In addition, a violation may result in: suspension, blocking, or restriction of access to information and network resources when it reasonably appears necessary to do so to protect the integrity, security, or functionality of university resources or to protect the university from liability; disciplinary action up to and including separation from the university; a department being held financially responsible for the costs incurred as result of a data breach, loss, or illegal disclosure.

Reason For Policy

North Central University has established e-mail as an official means of communication with students and has the right to send official communications to the university e-mail address.

Compliance with this policy helps the university to achieve two goals:

1. Improve the successful delivery of university communications to all faculty, staff, and students.
2. Reduce the risk of university data classified as high-risk going through e-mail systems that are not managed by the university.

Policy Scope

This policy applies to, but is not limited to, university faculty and visiting faculty, staff, students, contractors, volunteers, and guests who are provided e-mail services managed by or for the university.

Procedures

• There are no procedures associated with this policy.
  

Forms

• There are no forms associated with this policy.
  

Appendices

• There are no appendices associated with this policy.
  

Additional Contacts

Definitions

Mass e-mail (internal)
University mass e-mail is an e-mail message sent to any large campus audience.

Student
Any undergraduate, graduate, or professional student. Student status starts upon matriculation.

Matriculation
The time when a student has met all conditions to enroll such as submitting any required deposits or final transcripts.

Responsibilities

Faculty & Staff

• Communicate information to students via e-mail with sufficient time for the student to act upon/respond to the information included in the message.
• Routinely check assigned North Central University e-mail account to review relevant information.
• Employees and students are expected to review messages received through their UO e-mail account on a frequent and consistent basis. Individuals must ensure that there is sufficient space in their accounts to allow for e-mail to be delivered. Communications may be time-critical. Individuals should use university e-mail accounts for all university-related e-mail communications.

Students

• Routinely check assigned North Central University e-mail account to review relevant information.
• Employees and students are expected to review messages received through their university e-mail account on a frequent and consistent basis. Individuals must ensure that there is sufficient space in their accounts to allow for e-mail to be delivered. Communications may be time-critical. Individuals must  use university e-mail accounts for all university-related e-mail communications.

RELATED INFORMATION

Related Policies & Procedures

• University policy: Acceptable Use of Information Technology
• University policy: Information Security
• University policy: Managing Student Records

Related Legislation

• CAN-SPAM Act

History

Issued
2022-06-12

Approved
2022-05-12