Student Email Communication Policy
Sponsor: |
Vice Provost for Student Success |
|---|---|
Contact: |
Director of Student Success Initiatives |
Category: |
Student Affairs |
Number: |
1300.002 |
Effective Date: |
//January 18, 2023 |
Implementation History: |
first draft January, 2023 |
Keywords: |
Email, Document Sharing |
Background Information: |
Empire State University provides an email account to all students and employees for all correspondence with SUNY Empire. Requiring student use of SUNY Empire email allows SUNY Empire to remain compliant with Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act regulations. Per those regulations, SUNY Empire must know they are corresponding with the student regarding the student’s educational record. This policy also addresses the forwarding of student emails to alternate email accounts. |
Purpose
Empire State University assigns each student and employee an email account. The SUNY Empire email account serves as a primary method of communication between students and the institution. Use of the SUNY Empire email account and associated features provides a higher level of security and assurance of sender identity over correspondence through third party providers. This policy sets the requirements for official communication with students and students’ responsibilities for the information sent through official university channels.
Definitions
Official communications are any communications related to matters concerning student, faculty, and staff interaction with SUNY Empire.
Student is defined as an individual who has enrolled in courses at/with SUNY Empire; has not graduated, has been dismissed or expelled, and/or has withdrawn from SUNY Empire; and it has been less than three years since the end-date of the last enrollment.
Statements
Email is an official communication channel at Empire State University and the institution provides all students with an email account. All faculty and staff shall use students’ SUNY Empire email addresses when conducting official communications such university business via email. Other official channels and portals that require a login into university systems with students’ credentials are also acceptable means of communication. Faculty and staff may require that students use other official channels and portals, such as those within the Learning Management System (LMS).
Students are accountable to SUNY Empire for information delivered to their SUNY Empire email and other assigned channels and portals. Thus, SUNY Empire expects students to receive and review official email communications in a timely fashion. As correspondence may be time-sensitive, students are encouraged to check their accounts daily. Communication prior to first enrollment as a student is not covered by this policy, however incoming students should begin using SUNY Empire email as soon as it is available. If a student has paused their enrollment during the three-year window in which they are defined as students, SUNY Empire may send emails to a student’s non-SUNY Empire email addresses for re-enrollment activities provided that the communication contains no protected educational record information.
Students may request that their SUNY Empire email be forwarded to another service provider and do so at their own risk. Students are responsible for all information, including attachments, forwarded to any email account. SUNY Empire’s responsibility ends with the proper delivery of the email to the official university channel. SUNY Empire does not guarantee delivery to forwarded addresses nor does it guarantee that documents attached to forwarded messages will function.
To ensure identity verification, students must correspond with SUNY Empire using their institution-provided email account or through other official channels.