Student Email Accounts
POLICY TITLE: Student Email Accounts
POLICY NUMBER: 8.5
POLICY SECTION: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
EFFECTIVE: June 2010
REVISED: June 2010
BACKGROUND:
The Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) has invested in its
technology infrastructure to enhance teaching and learning and to enable
efficient business practices. All CCRI students have access to
e-mail as an official communications channel and the MyCCRI portal for
current news, events and personalized messages. CCRI is committed to the
use of collegewide electronic communication to enhance interpersonal
communications, improve information exchange and to reduce the use of
paper and printed materials.
Students are assigned an e-mail account and provided with their MyCCRI
(portal) username upon acceptance to a college-level credit certificate
or associate degree program of study at CCRI. Access to e-mail is
provided through the MyCCRI portal. The official CCRI e-mail address is
presently jdoe@ccri.edu. In September, 2010, all such students
will have CCRI e-mail accounts using Microsoft Live@edu, the details of
which (including addresses) are being determined. Live@edu e-mail
accounts may remain active after a student ceases to attend CCRI,
subject to the requirements imposed by Microsoft.
Students may use their account for personal e-mail in accordance with
the CCRI Responsible Use of Information Technology policy.
E-mail is an official communications channel of CCRI and is the
principal medium through which it communicates with students.
Official correspondence from faculty and staff is communicated through
the CCRI e-mail system. Important communications may be sent to students
as needed, including reminders of important dates associated with
academic and financial responsibilities and co-curricular events.
Students are responsible for the information received and are required
to check their official student e-mail regularly and to read
college-related communications.
Failure to activate and monitor one’s e-mail account does not exempt
one from responsibility to act upon college-related matters. All new
students are expected to activate their CCRI e-mail accounts and to
begin monitoring their e-mail upon acceptance.
POLICY STATEMENT:
Users are expected to have read the Responsible Use of Information
Technology prior to use of the e-mail system. Use of the e-mail system
constitutes full acceptance of the terms and conditions of the policy
and consent to monitoring. The consequences for not complying with the
conditions of the policy could result in disciplinary action including
revocation of system privileges. The electronic mail system is
college property. Additionally, all messages composed, sent or received
on the electronic mail system are and remain the property of CCRI.
The CCRI electronic mail system is not to be used to create, send or
forward messages that are threatening, harassing, obscene, or offensive
on any basis, including race, color, creed, national or ethnic origin,
citizenship, marital status, gender, religion, disability, age, sexual
orientation, or status as a veteran. All use of e-mail will be
consistent with other CCRI policies and local, state and federal law,
including the CCRI Policy on the Responsible Use of Information
Technology.br />
The e-mail quota is the amount of e-mail (including attachments) that a
user can store on the central e-mail server. CCRI has a mail
storage quota of 25MB for each student account. The mailbox storage
limits have been set to warn students when their mailbox has reached 90
percent or more of that 25MB in size. Once the 25MB limit has been
reached, students will still be able to receive mail, but will no longer
be able to send mail until the mailbox has been cleaned out and brought
back below 25MB.
The maximum size of any e-mail attachment is 24MB. CCRI has implemented
a spam filter, which scans incoming messages and attempts to block spam.
If spam is encountered, the recipient will be alerted via e-mail and can
decide whether to accept or deny the message. The mail servers remove
any attachments that may contain a virus, and a notice that the
attachment was removed will be sent to the intended recipients.
CCRI e-mail addresses may be forwarded to another e-mail account as
desired. Students who redirect (auto forward) messages sent to
their official CCRI student e-mail address to another address (such as
AOL, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc.) do so at their own risk. E-mail lost as
a result of redirection does not absolve the student from
responsibilities associated with communication sent to his/her official
CCRI e-mail address.
CCRI is not responsible for the handling of e-mail by outside vendors.
If a student opts to forward his or her account to another e-mail
address, he or she assumes responsibility for the reliability of this
address and will be held responsible for the information sent over CCRI
e-mail, even if there is a problem with the alternate e-mail service.
E-mail at CCRI provides a secure sign-on and secure transfer of e-mail
within the system. However, students should be aware that CCRI cannot be
responsible for the security of information forwarded to other accounts.
Users should exercise extreme caution in using e-mail to communicate
confidential or sensitive matters and should not assume that e-mail is
private and confidential. CCRI seeks to preserve privacy and
confidentiality in all of the IT Services; however, confidentiality of
electronic mail cannot be assured.
Confidentiality may be compromised by unintended redistribution or
because of inadequacy of technologies to protect against unauthorized
access. Any confidentiality may be subordinate to the application
of law or policy; therefore, users should assume that the contents of
electronic mail may be accessible to persons other than the recipient.
Confidentiality of student records is protected under the Family
Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA). All use of e-mail,
including use for sensitive or confidential information, will be
consistent with FERPA.
For security and privacy reasons, students should construct an e-mail
password that is difficult for someone to reproduce. IT at CCRI
recommends using at least six characters including both uppercase and
lowercase letters, a number and a special character (for example, $, _
or @).
Users of the CCRI e-mail system must abide by the college’s Responsible Use of Information Technology
policy and the Electronic Communications Policy. Note that these policies
include the following requirements and expectations:
All users are required to comply with all applicable CCRI policies,
procedures, standards and guidelines as well as municipal, state, and
federal laws, rules and regulations.
E-mail and portal accounts and passwords are assigned to one individual
and should be used by ONLY that person.
College e-mail accounts are not private. While CCRI does not generally
monitor or access e-mail, it reserves the right to monitor, access,
review and disclose such information where appropriate.
&CCRI will not be held liable for the loss of any data or undelivered
e-mail. CCRI’s normal backup and recovery mechanisms will be used on
e-mail accounts. This may prohibit the restoration of a single
mailbox, folder or message.
EXCEPTION:
In emergencies or other special circumstances when advance approval of the President is impractical, policy exceptions may be made by responsible officials but shall be reported, in writing, to the President within three working days. Responsible officials also may issue interim policies, subject to the approval of the President, to meet emergency deadlines or in other special circumstances.
RESPONSIBLE DEPARTMENT:
Responsibilities for implementing this policy are listed below:
Enrollment Services
- Acceptance of students into credit certificate or degree programs at CCRI
- Entering student demographic data in Banner
Information Technology
- Provides account provisioning based upon student information in Banner
- Maintains student e-mail and portal accounts
- Backs up and maintains student e-mail and portal account contents
- Informs student account holders of changes in e-mail and portal systems
ADDITIONAL AUTHORITY:
In the event of violation of standards and policies of the college, the chief information officer may temporarily disable e-mail and portal accounts upon investigation and evaluation of incidents in accordance with the IT advisory structure guidelines.
RELATED POLICIES:
Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education Policy Manual
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