2.04 – Email Policy

Purpose of Document:

To define Asbury Theological Seminary’s email retention and usage to ensure that email is properly preserved when needed and deleted when not needed. This policy applies to all users of the Seminary e-mail.

Executive Summary: 

  • All emails relating to Seminary business should be sent through the approved Seminary email system. Personal email should not be used for Seminary business. 
  • New email accounts will be created and changes to accounts will be made when requested by the appropriate office through appropriate channels. 
  • ATS maintains ownership of all emails sent through its system, and confidentiality standards must be maintained by both the institution and individual users. 
  • Emails containing sensitive information must meet enhanced security standards.
  • Improper use of Seminary email is prohibited.
  • Email accounts for former students and/or employees will be deactivated according to specific guidelines detailed below.

Policy:

Approved Seminary Email Systems

All email used to conduct Seminary business must be transmitted via the approved Seminary Email System. Personal email accounts should not be used for Seminary business under any circumstances. Email clients (e.g. Outlook, Thunderbird, etc) are acceptable as long as they are used in conjunction with official Seminary email accounts. 

Email services are available for faculty and staff to conduct and communicate Seminary business. Incidental personal use of email is allowed with the understanding that the primary use be job-related, and that occasional use does not adversely impact work responsibilities or the performance of the network.

New Email Accounts

  1. Email account requests for new employees and contractors are initiated at the time of hire. No employee/contractor accounts will be created until notification is received from HR. 
  2. Email account requests for new faculty, teaching assistants, dissertation coaches, and other academic personnel will be initiated by the Provost’s Office. No such account will be created until notification is received from the Provost’s Office.
  3. Email account requests for new students will be initiated by Admissions when a student is admitted (or other specified triggers as agreed upon by EMT and LITS).

Changing Email Accounts

  1. If the name on a Seminary account changes, the email address may also be changed in accordance with the Seminary Login Account Policy.

Privacy

  1. Asbury Theological Seminary retains ownership of any emails sent from a Seminary-issued email account. This applies to both active and suspended accounts. This means that the Seminary retains the rights to monitor email use and disclose to authorized personnel or external parties, as required by customary business practice or law.
  2. Messages sent and received via ATS’s e-mail system must be kept confidential by ATS senders and recipients, as well as by Seminary employees and contractors who may have access to these accounts through their customary duties and responsibilities.
  3. The Seminary may record information about certain data elements of email messages in the course of monitoring or maintaining its email systems. These data include, but are not limited to: (a) the identity and address of the authenticated sender, (b) the address of the recipient, (c) the size of the message, (d) the transmission time, (e) the headers of the email, (f) the subject of the message, (g) the number of attachments and (h) certain features that are used to identify spam. 

Prohibited Actions

No user of Seminary email may take any of the following actions: 

  1. Send or forward an email through Seminary systems for any purpose if such email transmission violates laws, regulations, or Seminary policies and procedures.
  2. Use any email system other than the approved Seminary email to conduct Seminary business or to represent oneself or one’s business on behalf of the Seminary. 
  3. Send nuisance email or other online messages such as chain letters. 
  4. Send obscene or harassing messages.
  5. Send unsolicited email messages to a large number of users unless explicitly approved by the appropriate Seminary authority.
  6. Impersonate any other person or group by modifying email header information to deceive recipients. 

Emails Containing Sensitive Data

Each user shall ensure that sensitive data is transmitted by email only if the following conditions are met (See Data Classification Policy for the definition of “Sensitive Data”): 

  1. No sensitive data will be transmitted to external sources through email unless it is encrypted before transmission. LITS will provide assistance as needed.
  2. Sensitive data is not transmitted in the “Subject” line of an email. 
  3. Before transmitting an email that contains sensitive data, the user double-checks the message and any attachment to verify that no unintended information is included and that the proper documentation is attached. 
  4. Before transmitting an email that contains sensitive data, the user double-checks the identity of the recipients. 

Email Retention

Email messages held under Gmail will be subject to Google’s storage and retention policies, which may change from time to time, with or without notice.

Graduating and Withdrawn Students

  1. Graduating students are transitioned to alumni accounts when the Registrar marks their Student Record as Graduate.
  2. Accounts of students who withdraw without graduating are suspended when the Registrar marks their Student Record as Withdrawn, Inactive, Canceled, or Discontinued. 

Employee Terminations

  1. Once the effective termination date has been determined by HR, the e-mail account of a terminated employee is disabled at 5 pm EST on that date. Exceptions to disabling such accounts and the duration of the exceptional extension require approval from Human Resources.
  2. During the employee’s transition to termination, LITS can advise regarding the creation of a non-ATS email account if needed. If requested by HR, supervisory access to a terminated employee’s mailbox can be granted.
  3. Upon HR’s request or approval, the employee’s supervisor shall be permitted access to the mailbox of a terminated employee after the employee’s termination date. For members of academic departments, the Provost’s Office must also grant approval and would serve as supervisor.
  4. In the event of a current Seminary student or alum being “terminated with cause,” the employee’s account can be suspended with approval of the Director of HR. LITS can create a new account for student/alumnus use.
  5. For additional information, see Termination of Employment Policy.

LITS Staff reserve the right to modify this policy at any time.

(Adapted from https://www.bowdoin.edu/it/safe-computing/policies/email-policy.html, https://it.brown.edu/computing-policies/email-policy, and https://policylibrary.columbia.edu/files/policylib/imce_shared/Email_Usage_Policy_0.pdf)

Approvals: 

  • LITS: October 11, 2019
  • Cabinet: January 2021

Next Review: 

  • January 2022