Approved by the Board of Trustees of the Rockland Community College on April 30, 2020

Contents

1. Acceptable Use:
2. Personal Use:
3. Unacceptable Use:
4. Confidentiality and Privacy:
5. Mass Email:
6. Email Account Management:

This Electronic Mail Policy (“Policy”) applies to all Authorized Users who are issued a formal Rockland Community College email account.

The purpose of this Policy is to establish the College’s policy regarding the use of Rockland Community College email facilities. Authorized users of College email facilities are responsible for using and maintaining their email account in accordance with the procedures and guidelines set forth in this Policy.

Electronic mail, like postal mail, is an official means for communicating Rockland Community College business. All students, faculty, and staff are expected to read, and shall be presumed to have received and read, all email messages sent to their official Rockland Community College email account. Employees of RCC including Administration, Faculty and staff must use only RCC email for official email correspondence in the performance of their duties.

Policies and regulations that apply to other forms of communications and the use of Technology Resources also apply to email facilities.

Acceptable Use:

• RCC email is a College resource intended to be used for College-related business: instruction, instructional support, advising, research, service, administration, and College-related correspondence in support of the College’s mission;
• Access to email is an essential tool that imposes on users certain accompanying responsibilities. The same standards of conduct that are expected of students and employees regarding the use of other College facilities, services, and resources apply to the use of email; and
• Official email to registered existing students should be sent only to College student email addresses. Emails sent to new students (prior to receiving their RCC account) or non-active students may be sent to their personal email
• Employees of RCC including Administration, Faculty and staff must use only RCC mail for official email correspondence in the performance of their duties.

Personal Use:

College email may be used for incidental personal purposes provided that such use does not:

• Directly or indirectly interfere with the College operation of computing facilities or email service;
• Interfere with the email user’s employment or other obligations to the College;
• Violate this Policy, the College’s Acceptable Use policy or any other applicable policy or law, including but not limited to use for personal gain, conflict of interest, harassment, defamation, copyright violation or illegal activities;
• There is no expectation of privacy with regard to email messages of a personal nature sent or received from College email accounts or from College computers; and
• Users may choose to have their College email redirected to another email address at their own risk. The College will not be responsible for handling of email by outside vendors. Having email redirected does not absolve a user from the responsibilities associated with official communications sent to their College email address.

Unacceptable Use:

In addition, the following specific actions and uses of Rockland Community College email facilities are improper:

• Any use of email that interferes with College activities and functions or does not respect the image and reputation of Rockland Community College;
• Concealment or misrepresentation of names or affiliations in email messages;
• Alteration of source or destination address of email;
• Use of email for commercial or private business purposes that have not been approved by the administration;
• Use of email to send mass or chain messages in violation of the Rockland Community College Mass Email Policy;
• Use of email for organized political activity or political solicitation;
• Use of email in violation of the Rockland Community College Acceptable Use Policy;
• Use of email to harass or threaten other individuals in violation of the Rockland Community College Non-Discrimination and Non-Harassment Policy or Policy Prohibiting Sexual Misconduct, Relationship Violence, and Stalking;
• Sending unsolicited email messages, junk mail, spam, or advertising material to individuals who did not specifically request such material;
• Forging or the unauthorized use of email header information;
• Discriminating on the basis of race, gender, national origin, age, marital status, sexual orientation, religion, disability or other classifications protected by law;
• Sending, viewing, or downloading offensive content of any kind, including pornographic material or messages of a sexist, obscene, harassing, threatening, or racist nature;
• Sending, viewing, or downloading messages of a religious or political nature for the purpose of proselytizing and/or soliciting funds or donations;
• Creating or forwarding chain letters, Ponzi, or other pyramid schemes or any type; and
• Gambling or any other activities that are illegal, violate any other College policy, or are contrary to the College’s interest.

Authorized Users are responsible for the content of their email messages and should understand that others can use the content as evidence against them. Authorized Users of the College’s email facilities whose actions violate this Policy or any other College policy or regulation may be subject to revocation or limitation of email privileges as well as other disciplinary actions or may be referred to appropriate external authorities.

Confidentiality and Privacy:

The College respects the privacy of its email users. It does not routinely inspect, monitor, or disclose email. Nonetheless, subject to the requirements for authorization, notification, and other conditions specified in this Policy, the College may deny access to its email services and may inspect, monitor, or disclose email in accordance with the Rockland Community College Acceptable Use Policy.

All data files and e-mail communications created and/or maintained on the College’s email system are neither private nor confidential. Students, employees and other Users have no right or expectation of privacy in any data files, or e-mail communications.

RCC, through its Chief Information Officer (CIO) as authorized by the President of RCC, has the unrestricted right to access, monitor, retrieve and/or duplicate all data files written or stored on the College’s email at any time and for any reason, including all e-mail communications sent or received and any websites visited by a student, employee or other User.

All data files and e-mail communications created and/or maintained on RCC email are a College record and shall be the property of the College. In addition, as an RCC record, any data files or e-mail communications are subject to disclosure to law enforcement or government officials or to other third parties through requests under the New York State Freedom of Information Law or other legal process.

If there is a reason to believe that an RCC email account has been used in violation of RCC’s policies and/or of the law, contents of the email may be inspected and/or disclosed without the prior consent of the employee, student or other User.

Email, whether or not created or stored on College Technology Resources, may constitute a College record subject to disclosure or other laws, or as a result of litigation. However, the College does not automatically comply with all requests for disclosure, but evaluates all such requests against the precise provisions of laws concerning disclosure and privacy, or other applicable law. Destruction of such records is governed by the College’s Records Retention Policy.

Mass Email:

Specific campus-wide distribution lists will be created, populated and maintained automatically based solely on fields/attributes in the Student Information System.

Requests for new, automated lists must meet the following criteria:

• Be based on a field or attribute in Student Information System, allowing the list to be maintained and updated by the system without manual intervention; and
• Be approved by the College Chief Information Officer.

Emails to distribution lists are not permitted by addresses outside RCC. All email distribution lists will only accept email from an @sunyrockland.edu email address. Mass email distribution lists that include all of a large category of users are further restricted and may only be utilized by:

• President;
• Vice presidents (including assistant and associate vice presidents);
• Deans;
• Directors;
• Division chairs; and
• Chief Information Officer.
• Specific individuals as delegated by above employees

All e-mails targeted to one or all of the mass distribution lists must be sent from an IT-created and approved e-mail account. E-mail should not be sent to the main distribution lists from any other e-mail account.

In order to maintain the utility of Rockland Community College’s mass e-mail system and to reinforce network security best practices, the following criteria have been established for mass e-mail distribution:

• Messages must directly relate to carrying out the business of Rockland Community,
• Messages must share information related to time sensitive issues that affect a significant number of campus community members, and/or
• Messages must inform a pre-defined target group of an announcement or event related to their specific role within the College, or Messages must relate to significant campus disruptions or occurrences.

Announcements that do not meet the above criteria of urgency and/or deliver critical College information, will not be distributed via mass e-mail. Additionally, inappropriate uses of mass e-mail include:

• Messages that are not aligned with the mission of the College;
• Messages that are personal in nature;
• Messages that are commercial in nature, with the exception of those messages that are in support of College business; and
• Messages that solicit participation in, support of, or advocacy for events, activities, or campaigns that are not aligned with and/or sanctioned by Rockland Community College.

Email Account Management:

All students and employees are assigned an official RCC email address ([email protected]), which is the official address to which the College sends email communications, as well as the address that is listed in the email directory and other appropriate College publications.

Email accounts for students are created automatically the day after a student applies for acceptance at the College.

Email accounts for employees are created automatically the day after Human Resources inputs their information in the College’s employee database, or seven (7) days prior to their official start date, whichever comes last.

The email address is based on the person’s legal name and preferred first name as reflected in the Student Information System.

Student email accounts will remain in effect indefinitely. Student email account may be suspended immediately upon the account holder being suspended and/or dismissed from the College.

Employees who resign, retire or otherwise terminate employment will have their email accounts suspended on their last day of employment. Such employees should be aware that their email accounts may be accessed by their supervisors in order to continue to conduct College operations after they leave. Supervisors seeking such access should send a written request to Human Resources to obtain access to the account. Once approved, the supervisor will then have 30 calendar days to either forward or copy the work-related email out of the account. After 30 days the account will be disabled and all remaining email correspondence will be deleted.

Retiring Faculty have the option of receiving an RCC email account upon retirement. This will be a new account (retiree email) and will not contain the email messages in their current employee account. The retiree account will be issued 30 days prior to retirement. Upon retirement the employee account will be deactivated and email sent to this account will be forwarded to the retiree account.

Revised: April 7, 2022