Official Student Email Policy: Use of Email for Official Correspondence with Students

1. University use of email

Email is a mechanism for official communication within the University of Arizona. The University has the right to expect that such communications will be received and read in a timely fashion. Official email communications are intended only to meet the academic and administrative needs of the campus community. As steward of this process, the Office of the Registrar is responsible for directing the use of the official student email. See, Guidelines for the Use of Official Student Email Addresses for details.

2. Assignment of student email

Official University email accounts are available for all enrolled students. The addresses are all of the form [Name]@email.arizona.edu. These accounts must be activated before the University can correspond with its students using the official email accounts. The Account website has been designed for this purpose. The official email address will be maintained in UAccess. Official email address will be directory information. As with other directory information, any student may request that his or her official email address be restricted in its access.

3. Redirecting of email

If a student wishes to have email redirected from their official @email.arizona.edu address to another email address (e.g., @aol.com, @hotmail.com, or an address on a departmental server), they may do so, but at their own risk. The University will not be responsible for the handling of email by outside vendors or by departmental servers. Having email redirected does not absolve a student from the responsibilities associated with official communication sent to his or her @email.arizona.edu account. Information and warnings about forwarding are available at http://uits.arizona.edu/services/email.

4. Expectations about student use of email

Students are expected to check their email on a frequent and consistent basis in order to stay current with University-related communications. Students have the responsibility to recognize that certain communications may be time-critical. "I didn't check my email", error in forwarding mail, or email returned to the University with "Mailbox Full" or "User Unknown" are not acceptable excuses for missing official University communications via email.

5. Authentication for confidential information

It is a violation of University policies, including the Student Code of Conduct, for any user of official email addresses to impersonate a University office, faculty/staff member, or student. To minimize this risk, some confidential information may be made available only through UAccess Student, which is password protected. In these cases, students will receive email correspondence directing them to UAccess Student, where they can access the confidential information only by supplying their Net ID credentials. The confidential information will not be available in the email message.

6. Privacy

Users should exercise extreme caution in using email to communicate confidential or sensitive matters, and should not assume that email is private and confidential. It is especially important that users are careful to send messages only to the intended recipient(s). Particular care should be taken when using the "reply" command during email correspondence.

7. Educational uses of email

Faculty will determine how electronic forms of communication (e.g., email) will be used in their classes, and will specify their requirements in the course syllabus. This "Official Student Email Policy" will ensure that all students will be able to comply with email-based course requirements specified by faculty. Faculty can therefore make the assumption that students' official @email.arizona.edu accounts are being accessed, and faculty can use email for their classes accordingly.