Office of the Chief Information Officer

University of North Dakota

Box 9021, Grand Forks, ND 58202

To: All UND students

From: James Shaeffer, UND Chief Information Officer

Date: July 26, 2004

UND has instituted an email policy that names U-mail as the mail system you’ll look at for all official email from UND. While this policy does not take effect until January 1, 2005, we want you to be aware so you can plan ahead. An email account is created for every UND student, so you already have one created though you may not have activated it. I encourage you to activate the account now and check it for communication about the move to ConnectND (PeopleSoft) that will occur over the next academic year.

Here is a URL with information to activate your account, if you have not already done so: http://www.und.edu/dept/itss/email.html. Following is the text of the email policy.

Contact me, Jim.Shaeffer@mail.und.nodak.edu, with your questions or concerns regarding this policy, or contact ITSS Helpdesk at 701.777.2222 for technical assistance.

Hope you’re having a great summer and we’re looking forward to your return this fall.

Policy: Using UND Email Address as Official Student Email

Policy Statement; Electronic mail or “email” is considered an official method for communication at UND because it delivers information in a convenient, timely, cost effective, and environmentally aware manner.

A University assigned student email account shall be the University’s official means of communication with all students on the UND campus. The official email account will be provided in the und.edu or und.nodak.edu domain. Students can expect to receive official information regarding deadlines, policy/procedure changes, changes in degree requirements, special events, course schedule changes, regulatory changes, emergency notices, as well as other useful information from the Registrar, Office of Financial Aid, the Provost’s office, Dean of Students, the Graduate School and information from academic departments. Students are responsible for all information sent to them via their University assigned email account. If a student chooses to forward their University email account, he or she is responsible for all information, including attachments, sent to any other email account.

Reason for Policy: The University of North Dakota provides students with an email account upon the student’s matriculation to the institution. This account is free of charge and currently is active as long as the student remains enrolled at the University. Increasingly, email is becoming the primary mode of communication between students and the University.

Some students do not use their University assigned email account. Other students forward their University email account to an alternative account (e.g., a Yahoo account). When students do not use their University assigned email account, or they forward email from that account to another account, vital information is often not conveyed as the email is unopened or the associated attachment is not forwarded.

Expectations of Students: Students are expected to check their official UND email on a frequent and consistent basis. The University recommends checking email daily.

Faculty Expectations and Educational Uses of Email: Faculty members may require email for course content delivery, class discussion, and instructor conferencing and may specify course related email policies in their syllabi. Faculty may also require students to confirm their subscription to University-provided mailing lists.

Forwarding Email: While students may forward their UND email to another email account, having email lost because of forwarding does not absolve a student from the responsibilities associated with communication sent to his or her official email address. The University is not responsible for handling of UND email by outside vendors or unofficial servers.

Portions of this policy are drawn from those developed by the University of Colorado at Boulder, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Minnesota Medical School, and the Eastman School of Music