Email Account Policy

Purpose:

Willamette email accounts, which are always paired with a network account, provide users with access to university applications, data, and email services. The purpose of this policy is to ensure that Willamette community members have appropriate access to these resources and services. This policy applies to all members of the Willamette community.

Definitions related to this Policy:

Email Account – An email account in the context of this policy is an @willamette.edu email address and a corresponding network account and G Suite account. The network account provides access to university applications and network drives, depending on the role of the user. Willamette uses G Suite, so an email account includes google cloud storage, calendar, groups, and other google applications.

Policy:

1. Who gets a Willamette Email Account
   1. Faculty - Faculty will have email accounts while they are employed by the university and when they have emeritus status. A faculty member’s email account will be inactivated at the end of their last day of employment, unless they have emeritus status in Workday. Their Dean can request a temporary extension or forwarding of their email to an external account for the purposes of continuity of university business. For temporary extensions and forwarding, the Dean must specify an end date, and it must be within six months of the last date of employment.
   2. Staff - Staff will have email accounts while they are employed by the university. A staff member’s email account will be inactivated at the end of their last day of employment. Their supervisor can request a temporary extension or forwarding of their email to an external account for the purposes of continuity of university business. For temporary extensions and forwarding, the supervisor must specify an end date, and it must be within six months of the last date of employment.
   3. Students - Students will receive an email account during the enrollment process and will retain it as long as they are enrolled at the university. Students who withdraw from the university will have their email account deactivated. Students who are on an approved leave of absence will retain access to their @willamette.edu email.
   4. Alumni - Students who have graduated from the university will retain their email account for one year after graduation. However, access to many applications such as WISE and Zoom will be discontinued for cybersecurity and licensing reasons.
   5. Affiliates - Individuals with special relationships with the university, such as trustees or contractors, can be granted an email account for the purpose of conducting university business. These email accounts will be deactivated at the conclusion of the university business with that individual.
   6. Adjuncts - Adjunct faculty will have an email account if they have an active or future appointment in Workday.
2. Use of Willamette Email Accounts
   
   1. Responsible use of email accounts is defined in the Responsible Use of Technology Resources Policy.
   2. Secure use of email accounts is defined in the Information Security Policy. Individuals with a university email account will be assigned a cybersecurity awareness module to complete on an annual basis, and if they don’t complete it, their email account will be subject to deactivation.
   3. Individuals are allowed to use their university email account for incidental personal use with the understanding that the primary use be university business-related and that occasional use does not adversely impact the university or the performance of the network. University email addresses should not be used as user ID or contact information on personal websites and apps that are not used for university business.
   4. In order to avoid confusing official university business with personal communications, employees must never use non-university email accounts (e.g. personal Gmail, etc.) to conduct Willamette University business.
3. Disposition of Inactive Accounts
   
   1. For one year after deactivation, the data associated with an inactivated email account will be held in Google Workspace and the account’s network H:drive data will be actively maintained. During this period, the account can be resurrected by a WITS administrator who can provide management, HR, or alumni temporary access to the account for the purpose of retrieving the data. Access to former employee accounts will require approval from the General Counsel or the Assistant Vice President of HR.
   2. After one year of deactivation, the inactive account cannot be resurrected. The account data will be purged from Google Workspace but the contents of the account will be stored in Google Vault, from which it can be searched and extracted by a WITS administrator. Similarly network drive data can be searched and extracted by a WITS administrator.
   3. After seven years of deactivation, accounts will be deleted from Google Vault and data will be deleted from the account’s network H:drive. At this point, the data is no longer available. However, the data for individuals who have held senior leadership positions will be maintained in Google Vault and network drives in perpetuity and can be searched and extracted by a WITS administrator.

Effective Date: October 05, 2020
Last Review Date: October 05, 2022
Next Anticipated Review: October 01, 2024
Responsible Person/Primary Contact: CIO
Responsible University Office: WITS