School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Official Email Policy

Overview
Email services are provided to the SMFA community in support of the teaching, learning and research mission of the School and the administrative functions to carry out that mission. Users of SMFA email services are expected to act in accordance with the SMFA Community Standards Policy and with professional and personal courtesy and conduct. Email may not be used for unlawful activities. This policy and related policies provide the framework in which all email services are provided and used at SMFA.

Definitions
To clarify terms used within these policies, the following definitions are provided:

Email account
An email account is the location where mail is actually delivered. It is a combination of a login username and password and disk space. A person may have several email accounts on different computers or email servers.

Email username
The actual name of the account as typed in at the Username prompt when logging onto email.

Email name address
The first.last@SMFA.edu (Jane.Doe@smfa.edu) address is the name address or alias for students and faculty, while staff addresses are first name first initial plus last name@SMFA.edu (jdoe@smfa.edu). They are linked to a preferred email account but are themselves, not an account username, but rather a permanent email alias. Use of the name address ensures that the email address will remain the same the whole time one is at SMFA.

Email delivery address
The username@server.SMFA.edu address is the delivery address. Each email account has its own unique delivery address which can be given out to correspondents as one's email address or a person may opt to use the email name address in addition to or instead of the delivery address.

Preferred email account
If a person has more than one email account, they will need to select a preferred email account which should be the account that receives most mail from correspondents. The name address will be linked to the preferred email account for direct delivery.


Email Accounts
Users of email must adhere to the Community Standards Policy in the SMFA Student Handbook.

Users are to take precautions to prevent the unauthorized use of email account passwords. Passwords are not to be shared with others and their confidentiality is to be strictly maintained. In choosing passwords, users should select codes that are difficult to guess and should change them on a regular basis. Users will be held accountable for all actions performed with their passwords, including those performed by other individuals as a result of user negligence in protecting passwords. Email administrators and other computer support staff will not ask you for your password.
No one is to use another individual's account, with or without permission.

Email accounts are assigned a disk quota on the email server, which can only be increased based on valid business justification. Users should not rely on disk space on email servers for the purposes of archiving or record retention.

When a student graduates or a person terminates employment at SMFA, their email account will be deactivated within 48 hours. (Graduates will receive an alumni email address via the Alumni Affairs office which can be used in place of their SMFA.edu address.)

It is the responsibility of the user to maintain any and all personal information contained in or related to their SMFA.edu email address prior to deactivation.

When a student withdraws from the School, they will no longer have access to SMFA email services. Upon official departure, the student's SMFA.edu address will be deactivated and eventually deleted. It is the responsibility of the student to make alternate ESP arrangements prior to their withdrawal. Should a student choose to remain on a Leave of Absence (LOA) for more than two semesters, their email will be considered "withdrawn" in status and all SMFA.edu email privileges will be deactivated.

Email accounts can be deactivated immediately upon the request of the president, department head, area representative or dean.

Email name addresses (firstname.lastname@SMFA.edu) are held from use for one year to avoid possible confusion of mail delivery.


Group or Departmental Accounts
In some situations, a single point of contact is required where multiple individuals manage service requests. These accounts are permitted as follows:

The area representative or department head will determine when a group account is required to conduct the business of the area or department. They will be responsible for all of the account activities, including use of it by authorized and unauthorized employees, and will sign a responsible use statement indicating this is so.

Passwords will be set to automatically expire at a frequent rate to ensure that passwords are being used appropriately.

Standard quotas will apply to all accounts created (these are not designed to store mail messages).

Account usernames and addresses will be assigned to these accounts as appropriate.


Email Distribution Lists
Mailing lists may be used solely for purposes related to teaching, course-work, research, and administration at SMFA and for School sanctioned student activities.

Commercial use of mailing lists, except for authorized SMFA school business is prohibited.


Directory Policies
SMFA electronic and printed directories are provided solely for the purpose of assisting individuals to contact one another. Information in the directories may not be extracted by any means for the creation of distribution lists for use by businesses or other organizations outside of SMFA. Use of directory information for solicitation of business or donations is expressly prohibited.

Staff may elect to remove personal contact information (including phone numbers and email address) from the online School directory. Personal contact information includes campus address, campus phone numbers, and email address.


Security, Privacy and Confidentiality
SMFA cannot guarantee the security, privacy, and confidentiality of email. Users should not assume confidentiality of their email. Users are not advised to send confidential School communications (as determined by law, policy, etc.) via email. Examples of why email confidentiality cannot be guaranteed are:

* Email may be subject to disclosure under law.
* Back-up copies may be retained for periods of time and in locations unknown to senders and recipients even if the user has deleted it from their account or PC.
* In the course of routine systems maintenance, troubleshooting and mail delivery problem resolution, network or systems staff may inadvertently see the content of email messages.
* Password protections are advised but cannot be guaranteed.
* Senders can mask their identity.
* Messages can be easily forwarded without permission to individuals or groups, even though it violates copyright law.
* Messages can be intercepted while in transit through the network.
* Forwarded messages can be altered from the original.
* Encryption and digital signatures are evolving technologies and are not yet widely available for use at SMFA.
* Once a message is received on a machine outside of SMFA, all of the above concerns continue to apply.


Email Backups
In the event of a system disaster, email will be restored to the state of user email accounts on that server at the time of the last back-up. As messages may be received and subsequently deleted or lost since the last backup, SMFA cannot guarantee that all messages can be restored.


Email Abuse and Policy Enforcement
Email services are provided to the SMFA community to conduct School business.

Violations of the email and SMFA Community Standards policies will be subject to disciplinary action and violators may have their email account suspended during any investigation.

The following is a non-exhaustive list of examples of email abuse:
* Excess personal use that interferes with School business by burdening the network or systems or by interfering with employment or educational obligations.
* Interference with other people's use of email.
* Intentional unauthorized access of other people's email.
* Sending spam, chain letters, letter bombs or any other type of widespread distribution of unsolicited email.
* Forging email.
* Giving the impression you are representing the School unless you are authorized to do so.
* Use of email for commercial activities or personal gain.
* Sending of offensive or abusive messages.
* Conducting unlawful activities.
* Email abuse may be reported to smfa-communications@SMFA.edu. Reports of abuse will be investigated and handled as appropriate. In all cases, do not delete any evidence or message(s) as they can be used as evidence.

Responsibility for Email Policies
SMFA Information Technology (SMFA IT) is responsible for implementing this policy, in cooperation with:
MFA Information Technology President of the School, Dean of the School, Director of Student Affairs, Faculty Senate Chairs and the Director of Marketing and Communications MFA Human Resources

The School has the right to change this policy as necessary.

*This email policy has been adapted from the official Tufts University Email and Information Stewardship Policies, a partner institution of SMFA.