Inver Hills Community College

Guidelines for the Use of Official Student Email Service

In 2005 Inver Hills Community College (IHCC) established the use of official student email accounts to facilitate more efficient and effective communication with students.  See the Policy for the Use of Email for Official Correspondence with Students for additional information. 

Appropriate use of email addresses is essential to the success of this mode for contacting students.  If the service is used to communicate too much information too often, particularly if the information is perceived to be unimportant, students will abandon the system.  Another concern is that student’s privacy rights may be violated if sensitive, confidential information is communicated via email. This document is intended to guide the appropriate use of student email service, in particular those messages sent from Inver Hills Community College personnel to students.  Students may choose to use their campus-issued email accounts more broadly than prescribed by these guidelines. 

All messages must adhere to IHCC’s Acceptable Use of Information Technology Policy, MnSCU’s Code of Conduct and Ethics, and Minnesota Statutes 43A.38, Subd. 4 and 43.A39, Subd.2, and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, as amended.   

As steward of the official student email address, the Dean of Students is responsible for directing its use. 

General guidelines

• The Dean of Students, Associate Dean of Students, Director of Enrollment Services, Director of Financial Aid, Director of Marketing and Recruitment, and the Business Office Manager are authorized to send official correspondence to students.  Other college personnel should contact one of these individuals if they wish to communicate with some or all IHCC students in an official capacity.
• Deans, program directors and other administrators are authorized to send official emails to students enrolled in programs under their supervision.
• The Director of Enrollment Services maintains a listing of official emails sent to students on an annual basis.
• Academic Technology and Computing Services staff provides technical support for initializing and using student email accounts.  This service is provided in the IHCC Computer Lab.
• Users are responsible for the content of their communications and for reviewing, understanding, and complying with all policies, procedures and laws related to access, acceptable use, and security of Information Technology (IT) resources, and for consulting with the Dean of Students or Director of Enrollment Services for clarification on privacy issues.
• When possible, email messages are sent only to the specific group of students for whom the message is pertinent.
• To ensure that students can access attachments, they must be distributed in a .pdf or .rtf format.
• Students are strongly encouraged to check their IHCC accounts at least once a week.
• Messages containing non-directory information (see IHCC Data Privacy Policy for definition of directory information) are sent only to individual students.

Examples of appropriate uses

• Notification concerning students’ change of course schedules (drop/adds), general petitions, withdrawals, and residency, and cancellation of registration
• Notification of student financial aid processing issues, deadlines and availability of awards
• Academic departmental information such as class changes, registration issues, new courses, and events
• Information about academic support services and college policies
• Reminders of meetings, such as advising appointments
• Notices about student workshops, internships, and on-campus employment opportunities
• Payment due dates and deadlines, payment plan details, and other Business Office information
• Degree audit and commencement information
• College-authorized surveys

Examples of inappropriate uses

• Information unrelated to College business
• Messages containing confidential information such as course grades, financial aid award amounts, or tuition/fee payment amounts
• Emails that violate the IHCC Acceptable Use of Information Technology Policy
• Solicitations
• Promoting or advocacy of political viewpoints
• Personal or non-directory information
• Surveys that do not serve sanctioned College purposes.

Inver Hills Community College

Policy for the Use of Email for Official Correspondence with Students 

Inver Hills Community College uses a college-assigned email address as the official means of communication with students. Students are responsible for all information sent to them via their IHCC email account. 

1.      College use of email

Official email communications are intended only to meet the academic and administrative needs of the campus community.  The College has the right to expect that such communications will be received and read in a timely fashion.  As steward of this process, the Dean of Students is responsible for directing the use of the official student email.  See Guidelines for the Use of Official Student Email Service.

2.      Assignment of student email

 Inver Hills Community College collaborates with the Metropolitan Educational Telecommunications Network (METNET) to provide each student an email account. The college-issued email address will be the only address Inver Hills Community College uses when sending official communications via email. Official email addresses are not considered as “directory information” under FERPA and the Minnesota Data Practices Act, but individual students can choose to make their e-mail address publicly available using the account setup options on the METNET web site (http://www.metnet.edu).

3.      Expectations about student use of email

Students are expected to check their email on a weekly basis.  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 College with “Mailbox Full” or “User Unknown” are not acceptable excuses for missing official College communications.

4.      Redirecting of email

Students are responsible for all information sent to them via their IHCC email account. If students choose to forward messages to another account, they do so at their own risk.  Students remain responsible for obtaining the information that has been communicated from IHCC. The College will not be responsible for the handling of email by outside vendors or by departmental servers.   

5.      Compliance with Related Policies

All messages must adhere to IHCC’s Acceptable Use of Information Technology Policy, available on the College web site, MnSCU’s Code of Conduct and Ethics, and Minnesota Statutes 43A.38, Subd. 4 and 43.A39, Subd.2, and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, as amended. 

Because the confidentiality of email correspondence cannot be guaranteed, users of this service should exercise extreme caution when sending messages. The service is not intended to communicate confidential information.

Policy approved: March 2005

Implementation: June 2005