EMAIL POLICY

Electronic email is pervasively used in almost all industry verticals and is often the primary communication and awareness method within an organization. At the same time, misuse of email can post many legal, privacy and security risks, thus it’s important for users to understand the appropriate use of electronic communications.

The purpose of this email policy is to ensure the proper use of UNIS email system and make users aware of what UNIS deems as acceptable and unacceptable use of its email system. This policy outlines the minimum requirements for use of email.

This policy covers appropriate use of any email sent from a UNIS email address and applies to all employees, vendors, and agents operating on behalf of UNIS.

1. All use of email must be consistent with UNIS policies and procedures of ethical conduct, safety, compliance with applicable laws and proper business and school practices.

2. UNIS email account should be used primarily for UNIS business/Academic related purposes; personal communication is permitted on a limited basis, but non-UNIS related commercial uses are prohibited.

3. Email should be retained only if it qualifies as a UNIS business/Academic record. Email is a UNIS business/Academic record if there exists a legitimate and ongoing business/Academic reason to preserve the information contained in the email.

4. Email that is identified as a UNIS business/Academic record shall be retained according to UNIS Record Retention Schedule.

5. The UNIS email system shall not to be used for the creation or distribution of any disruptive or offensive messages. Staff, faculty or students who receive any emails with this content from any UNIS staff, faculty or student should report the matter to their supervisor/teacher/principal immediately.

6. Users are prohibited from automatically forwarding UNIS email to a third party email system (noted in 4.8 below). Individual messages which are forwarded by the user must not contain UNIS confidential or above information.

7. UNIS staff/faculty/students/admin shall have no expectation of privacy in anything they store, send or receive on the school’s email system.

8. If an email system is used at UNIS, the school owns it and is allowed to review its contents. Messages sent within the school as well as those that are sent from students/staff/faculty school owned devices and/or on school’s network can be subject to monitoring by the school’s administration. This may include web-based email accounts and instant messages. UNIS staff/faculty/students should therefore assume that their email is being monitored and is not private.

9. UNIS may monitor messages without prior notice. UNIS is not obliged to monitor email messages.

10. UNIS staff/faculty/admin shall not utilize distribution lists for non business/academic related purposes.

Phishing is a term used to describe email messages that appear to come from a person or a company/school you know, but are from someone attempting to trick you into sharing private information such as passwords and financial details, . These messages will usually encourage you to click a link that takes you to a fraudulent website where you are asked to login and/or provide private information which is then captured by the scammer. This information is then likely used to commit identity theft, perhaps withdraw funds from your financial accounts, ask you to send money, access password-protected sites impersonating you, and even reach your contacts in an attempt to defraud them or steal their private information.

There are a few simple steps UNIS faculty/staff/admin/students can take to protect themselves:

• Never give a password by email.

• Never reply to an email, even if only slightly suspicious in nature.

• When reading an email that looks even slightly suspicious, never follow any links and never open any email attachments.

• Verify the source of the information: if receiving a request from what appears to be the email address of an acquaintance, reach out to them (not by writing to the email address from which you received the message) to confirm their request.

Rule 1 – Answer swiftly

People send you email because they want quick responses. It’s preferable to answer email within a reasonable amount of time. Best practices would suggest 24 to 48 hours, preferably within the same working day. If your response email is complicated, and the topic sensitive or urgent, just send an email confirming receipt and letting them know that you will get back to them.

Rule 2 – Use a meaningful subject line

Try to use a subject that is meaningful to the recipient as well as yourself. It also makes it easier to search for old emails when the subject line is relevant and specific to the content of the email.

Rule 3 – Don’t abuse the “Reply to All”

Only use Reply to All if you really need your message to be seen by each person who received the original message. Sending off irrelevant or unnecessary replies to everyone on the list is just annoying and confusing. However, if communication is vital between all parties in an email thread, use the Reply to All to keep everyone in the loop. If you only use Reply in such a case, the recipient may have to forward your email to everyone else , which is frustrating and disjointed.

Rule 4 – Use the BCC Field

When sending to many people, some people put all the email addresses in the To: field. There are two drawbacks to doing that: (1) the recipient knows that you have sent the same message to a large number of recipients, and (2) you are publicizing someone else's email address without their permission. Instead, consider using the Bcc: field. Put your mailing list group name in To: field in their email (leaving the To: field blank may look like spam).

Rule 5 – Don’t leave out the message thread

Include the original mail in your reply, in other words click 'Reply', instead of 'New Mail'. We all receive many emails and we can't remember each individual email. Leaving the thread may take a fraction longer in download time, but it saves the recipient time looking for the related emails in their inbox. Remember, emails are not like regular printed correspondence - the name of the game is to keep it quick and efficient – so include the thread!

Rule 6 – Read your email before you send it

Treat email like any other official school document. Read it before you send it. Spelling and grammar errors are just as unfortunate in email as anywhere else in your corporate correspondence. Look out for potential misunderstandings, the tone, and inappropriate comments; we use email because it is quick and easy but precisely that quickness may cause more trouble than you bargained for!

Rule 7 – Confidential information

Email is just too risky a place to include confidential information. Ask yourself if you would want the content of your email displayed on a bulletin board.

Rule 8 – Abbreviations & emoticons

Be careful using email abbreviations such as BTW (by the way) and LOL (laugh out loud) in school emails. Even today, some people still don't know what they mean, so it's better to drop them. And emoticons, such as the smiley :-) don't belong in work email unless for a relaxed form of communication

Rule 9 – Don’t attach unnecessary files

Wherever possible try to compress attachments and only send attachments when they are productive.

Rule 10 – Don’t forward junk

Don't forward chain letters, virus hoaxes, chain email solicitations for charitable causes even if they sound bona fide, funny pictures and jokes. Don't ever send or forward emails containing libelous, defamatory, offensive, racist or obscene remarks.

Rule 11 – Be concise

Do not make an email longer than it needs to be. Email is harder to read than printed communications. A long email can be very discouraging and can be abandoned before the recipient gets to your final point all the way down at the bottom. If it has to be long, consider including a synopsis at the top of the email.

Rule 12 – Answer all questions & more

Make sure you answer all the questions and pre-empt new questions in your reply.

Rule 13 – Make it personal

Not only should the e- mail be personally addressed, it should also include personal, i.e. customized, content. For this reason auto replies are usually not very effective. When you get some questions over and over, such as directions to the school, admission information, fundraising, etc..., save these texts as response templates and paste them into your message when you need them. You can save your templates in a Google document, or use pre-formatted emails.

Rule 14 – Use the proper structure & layout

Reading from a screen is more difficult than reading from paper so the structure and layout is very important for email messages. Make your paragraphs short and use blank lines between each paragraph. When making points, number them or separate each point with blank lines to keep the overview.

Rule 15 – Don’t overuse the High Priority function

If you overuse the high priority option, it will lose its function when you really need it. Besides, even if a mail has high priority, your message will come across as slightly aggressive if you flag it as 'high priority'. Likewise, be careful using the words Urgent or Important in the subject line.

Rule 16 – Do not write in CAPITALS

IF YOU WRITE IN CAPITALS IT SEEMS AS IF YOU ARE SHOUTING!! This can be highly annoying, difficult to read and might trigger an unwanted response in the form of a flame mail (you get yelled back at!). Therefore, try not to send email text in capitals.

Rule 17 – Be careful with formatting

Remember that when you use formatting in your emails, the sender might not be able to view formatting, or might see different fonts than you had intended. 10% of email recipients cannot read html or rich text email; they can only receive in plain text. So for them, fonts, colors and other fancy formatting is lost. When using colors, make sure it is easy to read on the background color you have selected. Remember, monitors vary in color presentation so what may look good on your monitor may be unreadable when displayed on another monitor.

Rule 18 – Do not request delivery & read receipts

This will almost always annoy your recipient before he or she has even read your message. Besides, it usually does not work anyway since the recipient could have blocked that function, or his/her software might not support it, so what is the use of using it? If you want to know whether an email was received it is better to ask the recipient to let you know that it was received.

Rule 19– Do not recall a message

Chances are that your message has already been read. A recall request just looks silly then. It is better to send an email saying you have made a mistake. This will look much more honest than trying to recall a message.

Rule 20 – Do not copy a message or attachment without permission

Do not copy a message or attachment belonging to another user without permission of the originator; you might infringe on copyright laws.

Rule 21 – Avoid long sentences

As mentioned earlier, email is harder to read than printed material. People don’t give email the same brain power as they do when reading for example a letter. Try to keep your sentences to no more than 15-20 words.

Rule 22 – Keep your language gender neutral

it is correct today to avoid sexist language such as: “The customer should bring his car to our service department for an oil change”. You can use “his/her” or keep it neutral by rephrasing the sentence: “The customer should bring the car to our service department for an oil change”.

Rule 23 – Don’t reply to spam

Spam may make you furious and you may want to reply with “flame mail”. Many spam emails are sent to confirm that your email address is still valid, and by replying you are only making yourself known to dubious marketers which may result in even more spam. Just delete the spam, or use anti-spam software.

• The policy is subject to change: any faculty/staff/admin/student can request modification in order to enhance their experience with Technology at UNIS. Exception to this policy will be considered on a one-to-one basis.

• These guidelines were partially created by or for the SANS Institute for the Internet community.

• Following the guideline of the “Emergency Access to Accounts and Information policy”.

• “23 rules for corporate email etiquette”, complimentary of Advantage Positioning