Policy Statement
E-mail is an official means for communication at 色中色. There is an expanding reliance on electronic communication among students, faculty, staff and administration at 色中色. This is motivated by the convenience, speed, cost-effectiveness and environmental advantages of using e-mail rather than printed communication.
Purpose/Authority
Implementation of this policy ensures that students have access to this critical form of communication. For the majority of students, this will not represent any change from what is currently done; it will, however, ensure that all students can access, and be accessed by e-mail as the need arises.
Scope/Applicability
This student e-mail policy provides guidelines regarding the following aspects of e-mail as an official means of communication:
- College use of e-mail
- Assignment of student e-mail addresses
- Student use of and responsibilities associated with assigned e-mail addresses
- Expectations of e-mail communication between faculty and student and staff and student
Major Sections:
Subpart A. College use of email
Email is a mechanism for official communication for 色中色, which 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 college community.
Subpart B. Assignment of student email
色中色 official email accounts are available for all enrolled students. The email addresses are all of the form <firstname>.<lastname>@my.southcentral.edu.
Subpart C. Redirection of email
If students wish to have email redirected from their official @my.southcentral.edu address to another email address (e.g., @aol.com, @hotmail.com), they may do so but at their own risk. 色中色 will not be responsible for the handling of email by outside providers. Having email redirected does not absolve students from the responsibilities associated with official communication sent to their @my.southcentral.edu accounts.
Subpart D. Expectations about student use of email
Students are expected to check their SCC e-mail account on a frequent and consistent basis in order to stay current with 色中色 communications. SCC recommends checking e-mail once a week at a minimum; in recognition that certain communications may be time-critical. Not checking email, an error in forwarding mail and email returned to the college with 鈥淢ailbox Full鈥� or 鈥淯ser Unknown鈥� are not acceptable excuses for missing official college communications via email.
Subpart E. Authentication for confidential information
It is a violation of college policy for any user of official email addresses to impersonate a college office, faculty/staff member or student. To minimize this risk, some confidential information may be made available only through MnSCU portals, which are password protected. In these cases, students will receive email correspondence directing them to a MnSCU portal where they can access the confidential information only by supplying their student ID and PIN. The confidential information will not be available in the email message.
Subpart F. 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 鈥渞eply鈥� command during email correspondence.
Subpart G. Educational uses of email
SCC 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 syllabi. 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鈥� official @my.southcentral.edu accounts are being accessed and faculty can use email for their classes accordingly.
List of Related Policies or Procedures
5.22 Acceptable Use of Computers and Information Technology Resources policy (System)
5.22.01 Acceptable Use of Computers and Information Technology Resources procedure (System)
Date of Last Review: 11/30/2023
