FX. Student Correspondence Policy (Student E-Mail)

Policy Statement

South Plains College will use various and appropriate media and delivery methods for communicating and corresponding with prospective, accepted and currently enrolled students. These may include but are not limited to electronic mail (e-mail), electronic messaging through CampusConnect, web site and portal announcements, conventional mail delivery, paper documents and publications, and campus postings. Email and electronic messaging will be the preferred and recommended method for official correspondence with accepted and currently enrolled students and the College will maintain a reasonable expectation that electronic correspondence will be received and read in a timely manner.

Assignment of Official South Plains College Student E-mail Addresses

All accepted and currently enrolled students will be assigned an official SPC e-mail address by the Information Technology Department. This address will be communicated to the student along with their acceptance letter from SPC. This is the official student e-mail address to which SPC will send all official e-mail communications.

Student Supplied Personal E-mail Address

Students may elect to provide a personal e-mail address to the college as well. This information will be collected on the "Application for Admission" and will be considered directory information. This e-mail address will not be considered a student's official college e-mail address and will only be used for directory information and/or a secondary e-mail address for communicating with students.

Redirecting of Student E-mail

Students may elect to have their official SPC e-mail address redirected to another e-mail address (e.g., @aol.com, @hotmail.com, etc.). By doing so students assume all risk associated with the redirection. SPC will not be responsible for the handling of e-mail by other providers or servers. Redirecting e-mail does not absolve a student from the responsibilities associated with communication sent to or from his or her official SPC e-mail address.

Student Responsibilities

Students are expected to check their official SPC e-mail on a frequent and consistent basis. The College recommends that students check their e-mail at a minimum of once a week as certain communication may be time-critical.

Technical Support

The research, development and maintenance for technical support will reside with the SPC Information Technology Department. Technical support will be delivered through appropriate and various means as determined by the IT department in conjunction with other appropriate institutional areas such as "AskSPC".

Privacy and Confidentiality

Official South Plains College correspondence sent and received by e-mail is subject to the same public information, privacy and records retention requirements and policies as other official College communications. Users should exercise extreme caution in using e-mail containing confidential or sensitive information, and should not assume that e-mail is private and confidential. It is especially important that users are careful to send messages only to the intended recipient(s). Particular care should be taken when using the "reply and reply-all" commands.

Educational Use of Student E-mail

Faculty will determine how electronic forms of communication (e.g., e-mail) will be used in their classes, and will specify those requirements in the course syllabus. By providing all students with official @southplainscollege.edu addresses the institution ensures that all students will be able to comply with e-mail-based course requirements specified by faculty. Faculty can therefore make the assumption that students' official accounts are being accessed, and faculty can use e-mail for their classes accordingly.

Deactivation and Mailbox Limits

All student e-mail accounts will be deactivated after a period of one year of non-enrollment. Items in Inbox and Sent Items more than one year old will be moved to System Cleanup folder. Items in Calendar, Tasks, Journal, and Notes more than two years old will be moved to System Cleanup Folder. Items in Deleted Items and system Cleanup more than thirty days old will be moved to Trash.

Sending Mass E-Mail to Students

Mass e-mailings are an internal form of communication to be used for official academic and administrative purposes only. The sale/distribution of SPC student e-mail addresses to non-SPC entities is prohibited, except as allowed by FERPA regulations and institutional policy. All requests for the distribution of student data to non-SPC entities will be coordinated through the Office of Institutional Research.

Mass e-mail to the entire student body or significant subsets larger than a department, program or defined student group/organization should be limited to essential and necessary communication that affects the entire student body or subset. Examples of appropriate bulk e-mail will include but not limited to: registration and financial aid information; payment deadlines; school, building or road closures; other urgent administrative notices.

Examples of inappropriate bulk e-mail will include but are not limited to the following types of messages: for personal gain; from an individual rather than a College department; optional student event announcements; chain letters; general broadcast messages or announcements (clubs, student government, intramural events, theater); for unlawful purposes; containing information of a confidential or sensitive nature; promotion of political viewpoints; surveys that do not serve sanctioned College purposes; messages containing confidential information such as course grades, financial aid award amounts, or tuition/fee payment amounts.

Requests for large defined subsets (e.g., all arts and sciences or technical students, all students from Texas, etc.) must be obtained through the Institutional Research Office and have approval of the appropriate Dean and/or Vice president.

In all cases mass e-mail to the entire student body or a subset larger than a department, program or defined student group/organization must have the approval of the appropriate Dean and/or Vice President.

General Guidelines

  • Keep messages simple and direct.
  • Ensure that any non-directory information (see FERPA for definition of directory information) is sent only to the student.
  • Use plain text in messages--do not include HTML or formatted content.
  • Format messages so that lines wrap at 72 characters or less.
  • Include the recipient e-mail addresses in the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) field if the e-mail is sent to more than one individual at a time.
  • Include sender's phone number/extension.
  • The e-mail cannot contain attachments (links to web pages should be used instead).
  • Content and grammar are the responsibility of the sender.
  • When a message is to be sent to more than 1,000 students, send separate mailings in groups of no more than 1,000 email addresses.

Approved Executive Council: 1/22/2007