VII:01:24 Email Policy

I. Overview

Email is a primary means of communication within the college community. Volunteer State Community College’s email is hosted by Microsoft’s Exchange Online.

II. Purpose

The purpose of this policy is to establish a standard for email use, mailbox size, email purge, and student email retention policy for Volunteer State Community College.

III. Policies

  1. Acceptable use
    1. The VSCC email system is intended for College business
      1. Work-related email is a College record and must be treated as such. Relevant retention rules as established by Volunteer State apply.
      2. Each email user must take responsibility for sorting out personal messages from work related messages.
      3. Email that does not meet the definition of public record, e.g., personal email, or junk email, should be deleted from the system immediately.
      4. Only email messages conveying information concerning official college business are to be broadcast to all or most users of the VSCC email system(s).
      5. Appropriate postings to VSCC provided electronic discussion and/or announcement boards are encouraged. These postings may include but are not limited to items for sale, photos of family members, community events, and discussion on topics of interest to the campus community. Items may remain on such boards for a period of no longer than thirty (30) days. It is the responsibility of the individual posting items to the board to remove them.
      6. The Human Resources department is to be solely responsible for sending email notices regarding deaths, retirements, new hires, and other human resource-related matters to the campus. Any individual or department wishing to make a general announcement about such events must work through the Human Resources department.
    2. The VSCC email servers are NOT intended for long-term record retention.
    3. The VSCC email service should not be used for:
      1. Private or personal for-profit activities.
      2. Personal use that creates a direct cost or adverse publicity to the College.
      3. Unauthorized, not for profit business activities, such as non-College related fundraising.
      4. Transmission of incendiary statements or events that might incite violence.
      5. Unlawful/prohibited activities as defined by federal, state, and local laws or regulations.
  2. Individual Mailboxes
    1. Size
      1. Mailbox sizes as provided by Exchange Online apply.
      2. Currently, faculty and staff have a 49 GB limit. Microsoft may increase this limit over time.
      3. Mailbox size limits cannot be increased.
      4. A warning message will be sent when the email reaches 90% capacity
    2. Purges
      1. Email in the Delete Items folder will be purged after 30 days as defined by Exchange Online policy.
      2. Junk E-mail will be purged after 30 days.
      3. Employee mailboxes will be deleted 30 days after the effective day of employment for full-time employees.
    3. Maximum recipients
      1. Email messages will not be able to exceed 500 recipients as defined by Exchange Online policy.
    4. Maximum message size
      1. The maximum sent/received message size is 150 MB in Outlook, 112 MB in Outlook Web Access (OWA), and 33 MB in the Outlook Mobile App (includes message and any attachments). Users that need to send an attachment larger than 150 MB should contact IT for assistance.
    5. Outlook Web Access
      1. Email can be accessed on or off campus via Outlook Web Access (OWA). If using a public computer or device, users should log out when finished with their session.

IV. Student Email is Provided for College Business Use

  1. Students should never share credentials with another person.
  2. Student email accounts may be retained for a period of one year after graduation to prevent inactive accounts from becoming compromised.

 

VSCC Source: President’s Cabinet, December 14, 2009; President’s Cabinet, December 16, 2019