Policy 5.9 - Email Access Policy

Date: November 20, 2023, Resolution #23-143

Supersedes:
April 17, 2017, Resolution #17-36

Purpose

The purpose of this document is to define the policies governing access to individual email accounts belonging to faculty and staff during their employment with Schenectady County Community College (here after referred to as the College)

Policy

This policy applies to all faculty and staff of the College (part-time and full-time), as well as all independent contractors, interns, consultants, and other third parties who have been granted the right to use the College’s email services. The policy applies regardless of the user's physical location (e.g., College offices, hotels, airports, user homes, etc.)

Use of email is subject to all policies of the College including “Password Policy” and “Acceptable Use Policy”.

Email is used as an official channel of communication for the College and is used to relay important information for communication purposes. Faculty, and staff are responsible for reading the College’s email regularly for official College communications.

Users may access their email via an Outlook client on their workstation, a mobile device, or via the Outlook Web Access interface. The College's email system is configured to require all users to authenticate their access with a username and password of an “Active Directory” account on the College’s domain. By policy, there is no unauthenticated access to the email system.

Users are required to maintain their email accounts and not neglect the information that is distributed to the accounts.

Users are required to adhere to the college's “Password” policy. Users must not share their passwords with anyone.

The email system is configured to allow each user to access only his or her own mailbox.

The college’s employees need to be aware that the law and policy relating to the use of county and state resources makes it important to separate work and personal email & files.

If access to another user's mailbox is deemed necessary, a request must be submitted to the Chief Information Officer or the President of the college.

Once a user is no longer an employee of the college, the user’s access to their email account is immediately terminated upon the user’s last day of employment.

Email as Public Records and Privacy/Security Documents

All email messages and copies of email messages, including personal communications, may be released to the public under the New York State Freedom of Information Law. In addition, all email messages including personal email may be subject to and released in response to various government and court-ordered legal actions.

All email accounts maintained by the College are the sole property of the College, which reserves the right to keep a record of all activity on the College’s email system. The College reserves the right to review these messages, with proper approval from the Chief Information Officer or the President of the college.

The use of the College’s email system is subject to the normal requirements of legal and ethical behavior within the College community. Policies and regulations that apply to other forms of communication at the college also apply to email.

Those accessing work email and files containing personally identifiable information (PII) on their personal devices must be aware that FERPA regulations apply regardless of the delivery system. Under no circumstance should PII be downloaded to the device for grading or any other purpose. While the college’s email system meets approved security standards, once email is forwarded off of the college’s system, it is no longer considered secure for employment purposes.