Email Policies

Approved by IS Committee, December 17, 2005
Approved by Senior Administrators, February 22, 2005

A. E-mail system as an official means of communication

The College e-mail system is an official means of communication for Connecticut College. The College will consider faculty, staff, or students to be duly informed and in receipt of notifications and correspondence sent by the College to faculty, staff or student e-mail accounts.

Faculty, staff, and students should frequently access their college assigned e-mail account for official information. Individuals who elect to have e-mail messages forwarded to an off-campus account are responsible for managing their disk quota so that there is room for new mail to arrive and for forwarding their Connecticut College e-mail account to a functioning alternative e-mail address. The College is not responsible for delivery problems caused by non-official e-mail accounts.

B. Saving correspondence and documents sent electronically

Connecticut College’s e-mail system is a delivery system for electronic communication. The automated system cannot discern differences between information of limited or transitory value and that of lasting value. The server is backed-up daily and back-up tapes are retained for a maximum period of one month. Therefore, the e-mail system does not provide the functionality or long-term storage capability required to maintain official records for the College.

Connecticut College faculty and staff should print copies of important documents and correspondence sent by e-mail to be stored in relevant subject files or save the messages in a stable retrievable electronic format on a long term medium such as a CDR or DVD. Each office or department should have guidelines and retention plans that provide guidance to determine which documents and correspondence will be retained and for how long.