IT 120 – Electronic Mail

To provide ownership, allowable use, privacy, and retention guidelines for all users of College of Western Idaho (CWI) electronic mail facilities.

Applies to all students, faculty, staff, contractors, consultants, temporary employees, guests, volunteers, and all other entities or individuals with access to electronic mail provided by CWI.

CWI email facilities: Includes all facilities, technology, information resources, and computing and electronic communication devices, hardware, software, and services required to accomplish the processing, storage, transmission, and communication of electronic mail, whether individually controlled or shared, stand-alone, or networked.

Electronic mail (email): A message distributed by electronic means from one user to one or more recipients via a network.

Official CWI email account: Account with email address of the form @cwi.edu or @my.cwi.edu. An Official CWI email account is provided to faculty, staff, students, and other individuals granted email privileges at CWI.

User: Anyone who uses CWI’s information technology resources, even if they have no responsibility for managing the resources. This includes students, faculty, staff, contractors, consultants, and temporary employees.

Policy 

CWI provides CWI email facilities that enable email communication by users. The use of CWI email facilities is expected and encouraged to facilitate the exchange of useful information in support of CWI’s mission. Members of the CWI community are expected to use CWI email facilities in a responsible and ethical manner.

Guidelines

Ownership Of Electronic Mail System

CWI email facilities are owned by and the property of CWI. Email is an official means for communication at CWI. Therefore, CWI has the right to send communications to users via official CWI email accounts and the right to expect that those communications will be received and read by users in a timely fashion. CWI reserves the right to operate its email facilities as needed for its educational and administrative services.

Allowable Use 

CWI email facilities are provided for activities and associated administrative functions supporting CWI’s mission. Any use of CWI email facilities should be related to CWI business, including academic pursuits. The use of CWI email facilities for teaching and learning is encouraged. Incidental and occasional personal use of CWI email facilities may occur when such use does not increase costs for CWI or interfere with CWI’s mission or operations. Such incidental use is subject to the provisions of this policy.

Users of CWI email facilities may redirect communications from an official CWI email account to another email address but will retain the responsibility to monitor official communications. Any user who forwards his/her CWI email to another email address expressly assumes all responsibility for delivery beyond the @cwi.edu or @my.cwi.edu domains. CWI is not responsible for forwarded e-mail from other e-mail systems.

Uses Not Allowed 

CWI email facilities shall be used in an ethical and responsible manner. The following are prohibited uses of CWI email facilities:

• To threaten, harass, or intimidate others.
• To conduct non-CWI supported fundraising or public relations activities.
• To transmit statements to incite violence or promote the use of weapons.
• For purposes prohibited by law, regulation, or CWI policy.
• To send e-mail that appears to be from someone else (spoofing).
• To violate the privacy of any student or employee.
• To assist in breaching computer system security.
• To conduct private business operations not connected with CWI projects.
• For electoral or issue-oriented political campaigning.
• To send large volumes of unsolicited email (spam) across systems.

Public Record & Privacy

While CWI respects the privacy of users and does not wish to inspect or monitor the use of CWI email facilities routinely or to be the arbiter of message content, users should not have any expectation of privacy or confidentiality as to any e-mails sent or received using CWI email facilities or an official CWI email account. As a public institution of higher education, CWI is subject to the public records laws of the state of Idaho. Any e-mail sent by users at CWI may be considered a public record subject to public disclosure as required by law. Use of private email in any manner for CWI-related purposes may cause that e-mail account to be subject to public records laws.

CWI reserves the right to access messages and data stored on or transmitted using CWI email facilities or official CWI email accounts at any time for purposes including but not limited to:

• Complying with legal requests for information.
• Rerouting or disposing of undeliverable mail.
• Maintenance of computer system security.
• Investigating reports of violation of policy or law.
• Troubleshooting hardware and software problems.

Message Retention

The nature of email messages makes them difficult to rely upon as a permanent record. Email communications at CWI are not considered to be record copies and are transitory, held for convenience, and may be deleted. Users should be aware that messages may or may not be permanent. Also, the confidentiality of any message should not be assumed. Even when a message is deleted, it may be possible to retrieve and read that message. CWI reserves the right to review and retrieve email communications for all lawful purposes. In addition, CWI may be required to put a hold on certain email communications to prevent their deletion. Affected users will be advised of any such hold.

Violation Of Policy

Any violation of this policy may result in corrective action up to and including termination of employment and/or suspension or expulsion in the case of a student.