Email Use and Access Policy and Student Access to UMass Chan online services

Every student will be given an email address that the student can access through computers in our library and any other computer with access to the World Wide Web. Library computers have access to the World Wide Web and to internal Computer-Aided Instruction resources and databases. Students may also create a WWW home page, maintained on the campus computer system and subject to the UMass Chan Internet Policy.

The following policy is designed to provide students with the maximum amount of advance notification of cancellation and/or announcements of engagements. Any questions regarding this policy should be addressed to the Office of Student Affairs.

Email is considered an official means of communication at UMass Chan Med­ical School. Failure to comply with this policy may be viewed as a violation of the medical school honor code. It is required that students review their e-mail accounts at least every 72 hours (excluding weekends and vacations) while enrolled in cours­es, clerkships or electives. All student users of electronic communica­tion are expected to observe the following policy:

1. Individually addressed e-mails should be responded to within 72 hours (excluding weekends and holidays).
2. All users are expected to utilize the “out of office” response func­tion during periods when they anticipate that they will not have access to their e-mail for prolonged periods of time (greater than 72 hours).
3. Senders (i.e. faculty) are strongly encouraged to include a suggest­ed response time for recipients.
4. Faculty are expected to check with the Registrar’s Office or Student Affairs Office as to whether a student not responding to email was enrolled in a course, clerkship or elective at the time of the lapse before filing any professionalism incident report.

In addition, the official IT Electronic Email policy applies to all users, including students. Therefore, all students must follow all applicable IT email policies. These policies are available at the UMass Chan Medical School Information Technology page: https://www.umassmed.edu/it/policies-and-guidelines/.

Email Use Guidelines
The University makes e-mail facilities available to both students and staff.  Campus e-mail users are encouraged to use these communications resources to share knowledge and information in furtherance of the University’s missions of education, research and public service. Students are free to use e-mail for personal use. E-mail is made avail- able to employees for the purpose of conducting University-related business, but occasional social/personal use is allowed, providing it does not interfere with an employees job function. An employee’s university e-mail address, however, should not be considered the same as a personal e-mail address. Violation of e-mail policies and guidelines may result in disciplinary action.

1.  Individuals are prohibited from using an electronic mail account assigned to another individual to either send or receive messages. If it is necessary to read another individual’s mail (e.g., while they are on vacation, on leave, etc.), delegates or message forwarding should be utilized.

2.  Individuals with e-mail IDs on University computer systems are prohibited from sending messages that violate state or federal law, or University policy.

3.  The use of e-mail for transmission of information disparaging to others based on race, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability or religion is prohibited.

4.  The use of e-mail for the transmission of information that solicits or results in personal gains (as in the case of personal or fraudulent donations and “chain letters”) is prohibited.

5.  Authorized users will not “rebroadcast” information obtained from another individual that the individual reasonably expects to be confidential.

6.  Bulletin boards used for soliciting or exchanging copies of copyrighted software are not permitted on University electronic mail systems.

7.  Authorized users are prohibited from sending, posting or, publicly displaying or printing unsolicited mail or materials that are of a fraudulent, defamatory, harassing, abusive, pornographic, obscene or threatening nature on any University system. The sending of such messages/materials will be handled according to University codes of conduct, policies and procedures.

8.  Authorized users will NOT unnecessarily or inappropriately use limited computer resources by sending chain e-mails, spamming, mail bombing, generating unnecessary excessive print, etc.

9.  Global e-mail shall be restricted to emergency events requiring timely notification to all members of the University of Massachusetts Worcester community and must be approved by the Office of Communications. The header ID must include a description of the topic/issue being addressed. Broadcast messages must address one issue at a time.

The University cannot control the content of electronic mail.  If an individual receives electronic mail that they consider harassing, threatening or offensive, they should promptly contact one of the following departments: Information Technology, Equal Employment Office, Human Resources and/or Student Affairs.

The entire UMass Chan Email Policy can be found at:https://inside.umassmed.edu/globalassets/information-technology/it-security/Email-Policy_Edits.pdf.

Alumni Email
Your UMass Chan email account will be deactivated within 60 days after graduation. You can create an alumni email address through the UMass Chan Alumni Community that will automatically forward messages to the personal email account of your choice.  The Office of Alumni Relations will contact you with information about this option in the spring before you graduate.