1. Purpose of this Policy
    There is an expanding reliance on electronic communication among students, faculty, and staff at Dominican University motivated by the convenience, speed, cost-effectiveness, and environmental advantages of using email rather than printed communication. Because of this increasing reliance and acceptance of electronic communication, email will from this point forward, be considered an official means for communication within the university.
  2. Scope
    This email policy is not inclusive of all aspects of email, rather it provides guidelines regarding email as an official means of communication including:
    • University use of email;
    • Assignment of email addresses;
    • Use of and responsibilities associated with assigned email addresses; and
    • Expectations of email communication between faculty and student and staff and student.
  3. Policy

1.    University use of email
E-mail is an official means for communication within Dominican University. Therefore, the University has the right to send communications to students, staff, and faculty via email and the right to expect that those communications will be received and read in a timely fashion.

2.    Assignment of email addresses
The Department of Information Technology will assign everyone an official University email address. It is to this official address that the University will send email communications. This official address will be the address listed in the University's Global Address List found in the Exchange/Outlook Address Directory and will be the official email address included with personal information within the administrative computing system.

3.    Redirecting of email
It is permissible to have email electronically redirected to another email address. However, those persons who use email redirection from their official address to another email address (e.g., @aol.com, @hotmail.com) do so at their own risk. The University will not be responsible for the handling of email by outside vendors. It is up to the individual to take whatever steps may be necessary with their personal email account to allow for the receiving of email forwarded from their dom.edu email account. These steps may include, but are not necessarily limited to adding the dom.edu address to a ‘safe-senders’ list and/or adjustment of any spam filters. Having email redirected does not absolve anyone of the responsibilities associated with communication sent to his or her official email address.

4.    Expectations regarding student use of email
Staff, faculty and students are expected to check their official email address on a frequent and consistent basis in order to stay current with University communications. For students and faculty we recommend checking email at least as often as your most frequent class meets in a week, in recognition that certain communications may be time-critical. Staff should check their email regularly during the normal work day.

5.    Educational uses of email
Faculty may determine how email will be used in their classes. It is highly recommended that if faculty have email requirements and expectations they specify these requirements in their course syllabus. Faculty may expect that students' official email addresses are being accessed and faculty may use email for their courses accordingly.

6.    Appropriate use of email
In general, email is not appropriate for transmitting sensitive or confidential information unless an appropriate level of security matches its use for such purposes.

      • Confidentiality regarding student records is protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA). All use of email, including use for sensitive or confidential information, will be consistent with FERPA.
      • E-mail shall not be the sole method for notification of any legal action.

D. Procedures
The Director of Information Technology will review this policy as needed. The President’s Cabinet, as appropriate, will authorize changes. Students, staff, and faculty with questions or comments about this policy should contact the Director of Information Technology.

E. Responsible Organization
The Director of Information Technology will be responsible for this policy.

The number of campus messages distributed through the university voicemail system has grown considerably with multiple messages being left on a daily basis. With so many messages, they become transparent as the recipients often delete the message before it has been heard. This new voicemail policy addresses this issue with the intent of streamlining the use of voicemail to address the distribution of urgent information to the university community.  
  1. Voicemail will be used only to inform the faculty, staff and students about critical news such as a campus closing, a special message from the president and other information approved by a cabinet member. 
  2. All voicemail requests must be sent from an approved representative to extension 6990 for the main campus and 9127 for the Priory campus, with a notification given to Telephone Services at x.6750. 
In an effort to facilitate timely communication, a new myDU Web page has been developed which will be used as the primary communication tool for university events and activities. This Web page will include daily or upcoming news/activities on campus as well as serve as a portal like page for online services and campus events  

1.     
Campus News on the myDU page is for passing university-related information to the entire university community. The postings are considered to be informational messages as opposed to official electronic email correspondence. 

2.     
Any faculty, staff or approved student group can submit items to be posted on the myDU page. Postings are restricted to activities on campus or DU sponsored events. Information should be submitted to the page at webmaster@dom.edu.  

3.     
The myDU Web page will be set as the default page on all university owned computers.