Part 1: General Information

Subpart A: College Use of Email. Email is a mechanism for official communication within Lake Superior College (LSC). The College has the right to expect that such communications will be received, read, and acted upon in a timely fashion. Official email communications are intended only to meet the academic and administrative needs of the College community. The LSC Web and Information Services is responsible for directing the use of the email system. All account users must adhere to LSC Policy 5.22, Acceptable Use of Computers and Information Technology Resources.

Part 2: Procedure for Implementation

Subpart A: Assignment of Student Email. Official LSC email accounts are created for all employees and for all admitted students. These accounts must be activated before the College can correspond with employees and students using the official email accounts. The responsibility for activating the account falls upon each individual employee or student. The official email address will be maintained in the Minnesota State Information and Student Records System (ISRS). Official email addresses will be directory information unless the students request otherwise.

Subpart B: Deletion of Student Email. Student email accounts are de-activated after 120 days of non-attendance.

Subpart C: Redirecting of Email. If a student or employee wishes to have email redirected from their official LSC email address to another email address (e.g., @gmail.com, @hotmail.com), they may do so, but at their own risk. The College will not be responsible for the handling of email by outside vendors. Having email redirected does not relieve a student from the responsibilities associated with official communication sent to his or her LSC email account. Information and warnings about forwarding are available on the LSC website.

Subpart D: Expectations about Student and Employee Use of Email. Students and employees are expected to check their email on a frequent and consistent basis in order to stay current with College-related communications. Students and employees have the responsibility to recognize that certain communications may be time-critical. “I didn’t check my email,” errors in forwarding mail, or email returned to the College with “Mailbox Full” are not acceptable excuses for missing official College communications via email.

Subpart E: Authentication for Confidential Information. It is a violation of LSC policies, including the Student Code of Conduct, for any user of official email addresses to impersonate a College office, faculty/staff member, or student.

Subpart F: Privacy. LSC cannot guarantee the privacy or confidentiality of electronic documents. Users should exercise extreme caution in using email to communicate confidential or sensitive matters, and should not assume that email is private and confidential. It is especially important that users are careful to send messages only to the intended recipient(s). Particular care should be taken when using the “reply” command during email correspondence.

Subpart G: Educational Uses of Email. Faculty will determine how electronic forms of communication (e.g., email) will be used in their classes, and will specify their requirements in the course syllabus. This “Email Accounts Policy” will ensure that all students will be able to comply with email-based course requirements specified by faculty. Faculty can therefore make the assumption that students’ official LSC email accounts are being accessed, and faculty can use email for their classes accordingly.

Subpart H: Acceptable Use of Computers and Information Technology Resources. Users are expected to be knowledgeable of and to fully comply with all aspects of LSC Policy 5.22 Acceptable Use of Computers and Information Technology Resources.

Date Implemented: May 6, 2003
Date Updated: November, 2007