Purpose

Policy Statement

Applies to

All employees of the Bridgewater State University community

Responsibilities

Employee Responsibilities:

• Employees are responsible for requesting their BSU user accounts via the account request process.

• Employees are required to access and review BSU e-mail on a frequent and consistent basis in order to stay current with University-related communications.

• Employees must recognize that certain communications may be time-critical.

• Employees may forward e-mail from their official BSU address to another e-mail address at their own risk. The University is not responsible for the handling of e-mail by outside vendors. Information on forwarding e-mail is available from IT Support Services.

• Employees will not be held responsible for an interruption in their ability to access a message if the University e-mail system malfunctions or other University system-related problems prevent timely delivery of, or access to, that message (e.g., power outages or e-mail system viruses).

University Responsibilities:

• The University provides a BSU user account and e-mail address to all BSU employees.

• The Information Technology Division is responsible for implementing and managing this policy and distributing and maintaining official BSU e-mail addresses.

• The content of official communications to employees is the responsibility of the originating department or individual.

• The University will select the form of communication best suited to a particular announcement and audience. In some situations e-mail might be the sole form of that communication. Examples of information the University might choose to send via e-mail include, but are not limited to, routine announcements, notification of important dates and deadlines, and official documents.

• The University must ensure that sufficient mailbox space is available for employees to receive a reasonable volume of electronic mail.

• The University will not use e-mail to transmit sensitive or confidential information unless its use for such purposes is matched by an appropriate level of security.

• University employees will exercise caution when responding to e-mail sent from an unofficial e-mail address, since there is no way to ensure the identity of the sender. The University will provide generic replies to non-BSU e-mail addresses and will require individuals to send messages from their primary campus e-mail address for a more detailed reply.

When using e-mail communication, all members of the University community are expected to abide by all pertinent BSU Information Technology policies including, but not limited to, Responsible Use of Information Technology, Monitoring of Electronic Communications, and the Campus e-mail Mailing List Policies.  Information Technology Policies can be found at http://it.bridgew.edu/Policy/