E-mail Policy

1. Policy Name

Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) E-Mail Policy.  This policy is maintained and administered by the Department of Computing Resources (DCR).

2. Purpose

The purpose of this policy is to ensure the proper use of Southern New Hampshire University’s electronic mail communication system and make users of the e-mail system aware of what SNHU deems to be acceptable and prohibited use.

Southern New Hampshire University reserves the right to amend this policy at its discretion.  This policy does not grant the users of the e-mail system any contractual rights.

3. Groups Supported by this Document

This document governs e-mail use by all persons entitled to an e-mail account from Southern New Hampshire University.   This list includes:

• All registered students and newly accepted undergraduate day students who have paid a deposit
• All active:
  • faculty and adjunct faculty
  • Professional staff  (full and part-time)
  • University staff  (full and part-time)
  • University guests (with the approval of the university President or VP Operations) for a specified time period.

E-mail accounts and content of the accounts are the property of SNHU.

4. Best Practices (faculty and staff)

Southern New Hampshire University emphasizes the importance of conveying a professional image in all e-mail correspondence.  Users should take the same care in drafting an e-mail as they would for any other communication that serves to represent the University.

The University’s e-mail system is primarily for use in connection with teaching, learning, research and business activities, SNHU allows a limited amount of personal use providing it does not interfere with the primary responsibilities of a faculty or staff member, or represent the University in an inappropriate manner.  All users must be aware of the University's right to review e-mail messages as stated in Section 11.

Users of the e-mail system shall ensure an anti-virus client is installed and functioning correctly on their local computer (PC), and ensure e-mail scanning is enabled.  Users should also ensure the PC is operating with the latest virus definitions available from the anti-virus manufacturer.

5. Best Practices (student)

E-mail should be checked at least once daily to receive the latest information from SNHU and to respond in a timely manner.  SNHU e-mail accounts serve as a primary avenue of official communication between the University and the student.

Students are encouraged to use their SNHU e-mail account when communicating to University faculty and staff, and are free to use the account for personal communication with family and friends.  All students must be aware of the University's right to review e-mail messages as stated in Section 11.

Users of the e-mail system shall ensure an anti-virus client is installed and functioning correctly on their local computer (PC), and ensure e-mail scanning is enabled.  Users should also ensure the client is operating with the latest virus definitions available from the anti-virus manufacturer.

6. Prohibited Use

Southern New Hampshire University will not tolerate any abusive, damaging or otherwise offensive use of its e-mail system.  To that end, it is strictly prohibited to:

• Send or forward e-mails containing libelous, defamatory, offensive, harassing, racist or obscene remarks, or attachments containing libelous, defamatory, offensive, racist or obscene content.
• Send or forward e-mails that discriminate or encourage discrimination on ethnic grounds or on grounds of gender, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, political or religious beliefs.
• Send or forward e-mails that transmit unsolicited commercial or advertising material.
• Send or forward e-mails that transmit, without proper authorization, confidential material concerning activities of SNHU.
• Send or forward e-mails that transmit material that infringes the copyright of another person including intellectual property rights.
• Create or exchange e-mail that contains a threatening or violent message, in violation of the SNHU Anti-Violence Policy.
• Disable or attempt to disable e-mail virus scanning protection.
• Sign in to another person’s e-mail account or provide your e-mail password to another person.
• Publish or reveal or use the e-mail addresses of other SNHU e-mail account holders without their knowledge and consent.  CC: of a person’s e-mail is acceptable under normal business practices.
• Use your e-mail account to mislead others; misrepresent yourself; or misrepresent your affiliation with SNHU.
• Forge or attempt to forge e-mail messages, to disguise or attempt to disguise identity when sending e-mail.
• Knowlingly send or forward e-mail with known virus attachments or contents. (if you need assistance or advice for dealing with a virus, please call the SNHU helpdesk).
• Promote another business or private organization that you belong to or are affiliated with.

For faculty and staff, violations of this policy are governed by the Unified University Handbook sections dealing with Corrective Action and Termination for Cause.  For students, violations of this policy are governed by the University Conduct Policy as published in the Student Handbook.  Any allegations of threatening, offensive or similar behavior using the SNHU e-mail system will be reviewed, as is standard procedure, by the University's standing committees such as the Anti-Violence Committee.

7. Mailbox Maintenance

It is the responsibility of every e-mail system user to maintain their mailbox.  Storing large messages (including those with large attachments) impacts the overall performance of the system and affects all users. Thus, mailbox limits have been imposed to ensure proper system operation.

The e-mail space provided for SNHU staff, faculty, and students is not intended to be used as long-term storage.  Alternative methods for storing e-mail messages and content should be sought after to properly manage e-mail space.

Mailbox Limits

	Limit	Warnings
Total mailbox capacity – Student account:	100 MB	97 MB
Total mailbox capacity – Faculty/Staff account:	205 MB	200 MB
Size limit for a single message (includes attachments):	8 MB	n/a
Number of recipients to which a single message may be sent:	50	n/a
Number of days deleted messages are retained:	7	n/a

8. Backup Policy

SNHU performs a nightly system-wide backup of the entire e-mail system.  This backup is intended as a recovery option in the event of a system catastrophe.  System backup is performed with the intent of recovering from such an event.  In the event it becomes necessary to restore an individual mailbox, SNHU may be able to provide this capability, however this service is not guaranteed.

Backup Retention

Nightly system-wide backups are retained for three weeks, after which time the media is recycled and used for subsequent backups.  Additionally, a system-wide backup is performed every three months and retained for six months.

Message Deletion and Recovery

There is the occasional need to recover from accidental message deletion.  Therefore, the SNHU e-mail system has been designed to retain deleted messages for 7 days.  When the client “Deleted Items” folder has been emptied, those messages are held in a temporary holding area on the server and can be retrieved using the client in which the messages were deleted (ie. MS-Outlook or Outlook Web Access (OWA)).

9. Email Account Retention Policy and Timetable

SNHU has finite resources for its e-mail system.  To that end, the expiration and eventual deletion of individual e-mail accounts will be performed.

Student e-mail accounts are left active for one year following the end date of their last term of enrollment.  All student e-mail accounts will be checked nightly against official university records to ensure the validity of said accounts.  Accounts found to be no longer valid are set to “expired” as of the current date to avoid any future access.

Expired student accounts that have not been renewed (via course enrollment) within 30 days of the expiration date shall be removed from the e-mail system.  All content of the e-mail account is deleted.  Individual mailboxes cannot be recovered once removed from the e-mail system.

• Example: Last term of Enrollment = 06ew2 (end date = 10/31/06); account expiration date = 10/31/07; account removed from system 30 days following 10/31/07, or 11/30/07.

Faculty and staff e-mail accounts are maintained as long as said person is “active”.  For faculty, “active” is defined as the faculty member has been paid within the last six months.  Staff are considered “active” until notification from HR that their employment is being terminated.

Faculty and staff accounts are manually set to “expired” as of the termination date upon notification from HR of a termination or pending termination.  These accounts are kept on the e-mail system for one year after expiration.  If the employee has not been re-activated after one year from termination, then the e-mail account is removed from the e-mail system and all content is deleted.  Individual mailboxes cannot be recovered once removed from the system.

Faculty and staff e-mail accounts will not be kept active after the termination date.

For expired faculty and staff e-mail accounts, and at the request of the terminated employee, an out-of-office message will be added to the e-mail account identifying the personal e-mail account of the former employee.  This out-of-office message will be kept active for three months.

In the event a person returns to SNHU prior to mailbox deletion, the existing account will be set to “un-expired”, retaining any and all existing e-mail messages.

In the event a person returns to SNHU after mailbox deletion, a new e-mail account will be created; any previous e-mail messages will not be recovered.

For a deceased person:

• Student e-mail accounts are automatically set to “expired” and are removed from the e-mail system once the deceased information is entered into the student information system.
• Staff and faculty e-mail accounts are manually set to “expired” and removed from the e-mail system upon notification from HR.

10. Approved / Supported Email Clients

The SNHU e-mail system is based on Microsoft Exchange. Approved for use with this technology are two clients, Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Outlook Web Access. Attempts to access the SNHU Exchange servers from non-Outlook clients should not be attempted, nor will they be supported by DCR in the event of failure or problems.

11. Privacy

SNHU respects the privacy of all e-mail users; however, all messages residing on University owned computer systems, including personal e-mails, are the property of Southern New Hampshire University.

SNHU does not currently monitor e-mail messages.  The university will investigate complaints received from both internal and external sources about unacceptable use of e-mail that involves SNHU e-mail facilities and/or the SNHU computer network.  Where there is evidence of a criminal offense, the matter will be reported to law enforcement.  The university will cooperate with the justice system in the investigation of the alleged offense.

The University reserves the right to monitor and review e-mail communications sent or received by users of the SNHU e-mail system within the following guidelines:

• Only with the written permission of the respective EC member and the University President, his/her designee, or the VP of Human Resources (or a court order) can e-mail accounts/messages of a current employee be searched.
• Only with the written permission of the respective EC member can inbound e-mails of a former employee be forwarded.
• Only with the written permission of the respective EC member can access to an e-mail account of a former employee be granted to another person within the respective division.

12. Spam

The University has installed devices and technology to reduce/prevent spam.  However, due to the nature of spam creators there remains a chance that spam may reach an e-mail account.  While spam is an unavoidable part of having an e-mail account, there are ways to reduce the amount of spam received.  Contact the University Help Desk for tips on dealing with spam.

Do not take actions against spammers such as:

• threaten violence or vandalism against the site or user that sent you spam
• hack into the site that originated the spam
• generate a technical attack against the site or originator of the spam.

_{Adopted by SNHU Executive Council 01/02/2008}