Application. The e-mail system owned and
operated by Ashland University is a critical component of the communications
infrastructure. A University assigned e-mail account shall be the
University's official means of e-mail communication with any person
having an AU e-mail account. Students, faculty and staff are responsible
for all information sent via their University assigned e-mail account.
Appropriate Use. The e-mail system is
a valuable but limited resource. The system is intended for faculty
and staff to carry out their duties. The e-mail system is primarily
used to conduct university related business and research and to
support classroom/instructional activities. The system may be used
by students to keep in touch with others and communicate while away
from home. Specific instance of use prohibited include (partial
list):
- Advertising items for sale or events not associated with the University
- Maters unrelated to academic or business activities or for personal gain
- Sharing illegal or copyrighted music, video, or computer applications
- Sending harassing or threatening communications
- Sending unwanted e-mail (spam) to others
- Sending unauthorized “bulk” e-mail to AU or external accounts
- Sending any material that is obscene or defamatory
- Represent personal opinions as those of the University
- Sending confidential or proprietary information to unauthorized
parties
AUP Acknowledgement
and Consent to Monitoring. Individuals accessing AU
technology resources are acknowledging they have read the Acceptable
Use Policy as well as other applicable policies. Individuals also
acknowledge that the systems being used as well as the information
contained on them and exchanged between them is the property of
the university. The university dose not routinely monitor email
and other electronic communications but it does have the ability
and right to do so without prior notice should the need arise.
E-mail Maintenance and Limits. E-mail
accounts must be maintained by the account user. Basic maintenance
duties may be characterized by but not limited to: removing messages
deemed to be “trash,” actively checking the content
of new messages, and securing the account password. E-mail accounts
must be kept under 100MB for students and 200MB for faculty and
staff. Notices are given as an account reaches this limit. Once
the limit is exceeded the account user can not send e-mail until
the account is brought back under the limit. The account can still
receive e-mails.
E-mail Account Retention. E-mail accounts
are issued to all students registered for a full semester course
(full and part-time), faculty, and staff. E-mail accounts for graduating
students will be deactivated following three months of inactivity
or a total six months following the last class of the semester in
which they graduate (whichever comes first). A message will be sent
to all student accounts warning of the account deactivation 30 and
again 14 days prior to deactivation. Faculty and staff e-mail accounts
are deactivated upon separation from the University. Faculty and
staff who retire from the University may keep their e-mail account
for as long as they wish assuming it is maintained and kept active.
Spam and Virus Email. All e-mail that
passes through the University e-mail system is scanned to determined
if it is spam (unwanted bulk email messages) or contains a virus
(computer program of malicious nature).
Retrieval of Deleted E-mail. By default
all messages in the “trash” folder are permanently deleted
after 7 days. Prior to this, e-mail can be retrieved from the “trash”
folder and placed in another folder. After e-mail has been in this
folder for seven days or if the e-mail account owner selects the
“Empty Trash” option the e-mail in the “trash”
folder is permanently removed and is considered unretrievable.
Threatening or Harassing E-mail. Sending
threatening or harassing e-mail is strictly prohibited. Cases involving
threatening or harassing e-mail communications will be referred
immediately to the appropriate authorities and/or university department
for action.
Third Party E-mail Readers. The GroupWise
e-mail system is the only university supported e-mail system. This
system can be accessed via the GroupWise client or via web access.
Third party readers may be used to read e-mail and receive mail
set to be forwarded from the GroupWise e-mail system. The Office
of Information Technology does not provide support for these systems
and users are advised that they are still responsible for the management
and maintenance of their GroupWise email account.
Revised: August 29, 2005
Approved by:
Curtis D. White
Vice President of Information Technology