Electronic Mail Policy

1.0 Purpose
2.0 Scope
3.0 Policy
3.1 St. Peter Claver Email Addresses and Accounts
3.2 Acceptable Use Under School Policies
3.3 Security and Privacy of Email
3.4 Best Practices in Use of Email
4.0 Related Policies and Links

1.0 Purpose

St. Peter Claver's email services support the educational and administrative activities of the School and serve as a means of official communication by and between users and St. Peter Claver. The purpose of this policy is to ensure that this critical service remains available and reliable, and is used for purposes appropriate to the School's mission.

2.0 Scope

This policy applies to all members of the St. Peter Claver community who are entitled to email services, as detailed in the Computing Privileges document.

3.0 Policy

St. Peter Claver provides electronic mail (email) services to faculty, staff and students, and to other affiliated classes of individuals, including alumni and official visitors. Use of St. Peter Claver email services must be consistent with St. Peter Claver's educational goals and comply with local, state and federal laws and university policies.

3.1 St. Peter Claver Email Addresses and Accounts

Faculty and Staff
Email services are available for faculty and staff to conduct and communicate School business. Incidental personal use of email is allowed with the understanding that the primary use be job-related, and that occasional use does not adversely impact work responsibilities or the performance of the network.

Email services are provided only while a user is employed by the School and once a user's electronic services are terminated, as specified in the document Computing Privileges, employees may no longer access the contents of their mailboxes.

Faculty and staff email users are advised that electronic data (and communications using the School network for transmission or storage) may be reviewed and/or accessed by authorized School officials for purposes related to School business. St. Peter Claver has the authority to access and inspect the contents of any equipment, files or email on its electronic systems. The document Procedures for Emergency Account and Information Access delineates the circumstances and process for handling these exceptions.

Students
Email services are available for students to support learning and for communication by and between the School and themselves. The services are provided only while a student is enrolled in the School and once a student's electronic services are terminated, as specified in the document Computing Privileges, students may no longer access the contents of their mailboxes.

Student email users are advised that electronic data (and communications using the School network for transmission or storage) may be reviewed and/or accessed in accordance with St. Peter Claver School's Acceptable Use Policy. St. Peter Claver has the authority to access and inspect the contents of any equipment, files or email on its electronic systems.

Alumni and Others
Individuals with special relationships with St. Peter Claver, such as alumni or official visitors, who are neither employed nor enrolled at St. Peter Claver, are granted limited email privileges, including an email address, commensurate with the nature of their special relationship. St. Peter Claver is free to discontinue these privileges at any time.

3.2 Acceptable Use Under School Policies

Email users have a responsibility to learn about and comply with St. Peter Claver's policies on acceptable uses of electronic services. Violation of St. Peter Claver policies (including this one) may result in disciplinary action dependent upon the nature of the violation. Examples of prohibited uses of email include:

• Intentional and unauthorized access to other people's email;

• Sending "spam", chain letters, or any other type of unauthorized widespread distribution of unsolicited mail;

• Use of email for commercial activities or personal gain (except as specifically authorized by School policy and in accord with School procedures);

• Use of email for partisan political or lobbying activities;

• Sending of messages that constitute violations of St. Peter Claver's Standards of Student Conduct or the Employee Responsibilities & Rights handbook.

• Creation and use of a false or alias email address in order to impersonate another or send fraudulent communications;

• Use of email to transmit materials in a manner which violates copyright laws.

3.3 Security and Privacy of Email

St. Peter Claver attempts to provide secure, private and reliable email services by following sound information technology practices. However,St. Peter Claver cannot guarantee the security, privacy or reliability of its email service. All email users, therefore, should exercise extreme caution in using St. Peter Claver email to communicate confidential or sensitive matters.

3.4 Best Practices in Use of Email

Confidential Information
When sending confidential information, it is strongly recommended that the user encrypt the message in an approved method as described in the Data Storage and Transmission section of the document "Guidelines for Safeguarding Information". Users transmitting confidential documents as email attachments must password protect them, or utilize other secure methods as referenced in "Password Protection of Documents".

Viruses and Spyware
St. Peter Claver email users should be careful not to open unexpected attachments from unknown or even known senders, nor follow web links within an email message unless the user is certain that the link is legitimate. Following a link in an email message executes code, that can also install malicious programs on the workstation.

Identity Theft
Forms sent via email from an unknown sender should never be filled out by following a link. Theft of one's identity can result. More information about the risks of identity theft can be found at Information Security @ St. Peter Claver: Identity Theft.

Password Protection
St. Peter Claver's policy requires the use of strong passwords for the protection of email. A strong password should contain digits or punctuation characters as well as letters. The Computing Password Policy contains information on how to choose and maintain compliant passwords.

Departmental Email Boxes
Departments that provide services in response to email requests should create departmental email boxes. Shared mailboxes may help support departmental functional continuity for managing requests sent via email. Further information about this service can be found in the document Sending/Receiving Email for Departmental IDs.

Forwarding Email
St. Peter Claver email users may choose to have their email delivered to a TFITS, Inc.-managed mailbox or forwarded to another mail repository. However, a non-St. Peter Claver forwarding address should not be used if there is a reasonable expectation that confidential information will be exchanged. Email is not considered a secure mechanism and should not be used to send information that is not considered public.

Staff email users on an extended absence should create an Out Of Office message, which should include the contact information for another staff member who can respond while the user is away from the office. These procedures are described in section 3 of the document Procedures for Emergency Account and Information Access.

Staying Current
Official School communications such as urgent bulk email, course email, and Morning Mail should be read on a regular basis since those communications may affect day-to-day activities and responsibilities.

4.0 Related Policies and Procedures

The following listing if provided for the purpose of directing users to policies and procedures that are related to use of email, but it is not exhaustive of all university policies and procedures that might have application to email usage.