Email as an Official Form of Correspondence

Background: 

Effective August 1, 2009, an email will become an official form of correspondence within Connecticut State Colleges and Universities (CSCU). There is an expanding reliance on electronic communication among students, faculty members, and other employees throughout the CSCU motivated by the convenience, speed, cost-effectiveness, and environmental advantages of using email rather than printed communication. Because of this increasing reliance and acceptance of electronic communication, an email will, from this point forward, be considered an official means for communication within the ConnSCU. Therefore, official notifications may be communicated via email.

1. University and CSCU office use of email: E-mail is an official means for communication within the CSCU. Therefore, the universities and the System Office will send communications to students, faculty, and other employees via email and will expect that those communications will be received and read in a timely fashion.
2. Redirecting of email: Faculty and staff members will not be allowed to enable automatic email redirection to another email address. Those persons who use manual email redirection from their official address to another email address (e.g., @aol.com, @hotmail.com) do so at their own risk. It is the responsibility of the individual faculty or staff member to take whatever steps may be necessary with his or her personal email account to allow for the receiving of email forwarded from the official CSCU email account. These steps may include, but are not necessarily limited to, adding the official email address to a 'safe-senders' list and/or adjustment of any spam filters. Redirecting email does not absolve anyone of any responsibilities associated with communications sent to his or her official email address. The University will not be responsible for the handling of email by outside email providers.
3. Expectations regarding the use of email: It is recommended that faculty members check their email at least as often as their most frequent class meets, in recognition that certain communications may be time-critical. Other employees should check their email regularly consistent with their work patterns.
4. Educational uses of email: Faculty members may determine how an email will be used in their classes. It is strongly recommended that if faculty members have email requirements and expectations, they communicate such to their students by specifying these requirements in their course syllabi.
5. Appropriate use of email: In general, email is not appropriate for transmitting sensitive or confidential information unless an appropriate level of security matches its use for such purposes.

Forward all questions and comments to the undersigned.  Thank you.  

Garry Bozylinsky
Bozylinskyg@easternct.edu
Chief Information Officer
Eastern Connecticut State University