Information Services

Staff Email and Calendaring

Search for Policies

Policy No.: UP09/8
Function: Technology And Telecommunications
Contact Position: Farquhar-Smith, David
Authoring Organisational Unit: INFORMATION SERVICES
Date Approved: 08/06/2009
Next Review Date: 01/06/2011
Approving Body: Vice-Chancellor

The University of Western Australia

University Policy on: The UWA Staff Email and Calendaring Service

Purpose of the policy and summary of issues it addresses:

The purpose of this policy is to describe the University of Western Australia (UWA) Staff Email and Calendaring Service ("the service") which will be centrally provided by Information Services (IS).

The service will enable users to access a central email address list, organise meetings using free/busy information and book shared resources such as meeting rooms.

Definitions:

An alias is an email address.

UWA email alias is the official form of email address used by the University to forward email, either to an individual or to a group.

An official email alias is defined in the Staff Email (Address) Policy.

Policy statement:

1 Email

1.1 The service is to be used by the University for official electronic correspondence.

1.2 It is expected that users will read their email regularly and frequently in order that important communications are received and acted upon in a timely manner.

1.3 When staff are out of the office on leave or for extended periods of time, arrangements must be made to provide automatic out of office responses or delegated access to the mailbox.

2 Calendars

2.1 The service is to be used for the booking of meetings and resources identified on the service.

2.2 The free and busy information in the calendar should reflect the user's availability during work hours.

2.3 The automatic publishing of their accurate free and busy information is expected of all users.

3 Records Management

3.1 All emails which are relevant to University business, whether or not the equipment, software, or facilities used to create or store the email record are owned by the University, are official University records and as such must have the same status as other written communications and be treated in accordance with the University Policy on Records Management.

4 Service Provision

4.1 A standard service is provided to all authorised users.

4.2 The service is a University facility; all University email addresses are owned by the University and access is managed by IS.

4.3 It is the responsibility of IS to administer usage of the service. IS may discontinue the service to any user who is considered to be in breach of this policy or any other UWA policies or regulations or applicable Federal or State laws. Any such decision may be appealed via the University's Disputes and Grievances procedures.

5 Authorised Users

5.1 An 'authorised user' of the service may be either a member of staff or a 'staff-like' individual.

5.2 A 'member of staff' is a person who has an active staff record in the Human Resources' staff database.

5.3 A 'staff-like' individual is one who has an active record in an authoritative source for such users and who has been authorised by an appropriate UWA delegated authority.

6 Security and Access

6.1 Access to the email account will be provided using a secure protocol to ensure the encryption of passwords and email traffic across all networks. A temporary exception to this method may be granted at the discretion of the University Librarian and Director (Information Management).

6.2 All access to mailboxes must comply with University regulations and policies as described in the Privacy of Electronic Material document.

7 User Support and Training

7.1 Email and calendaring user support and training is the responsibility of the local faculty/school/area.

8 Service Support

8.1 Data stored in the email and calendaring service is backed up, and will be restored in the event of a system failure. Email that has been deleted or removed from the system cannot be restored.

8.2 IS will provide central antivirus and spam filtering for all incoming and outgoing email.

9 Email Addresses and Aliases

9.1 Naming Standards
Email addresses or aliases (for users, role based accounts, resources and distribution lists) will be created in accordance with University policies, standards and naming conventions.

9.2 Reply Address
The reply email address for all accounts will be an official university alias.

10 Email Account Management

10.1 Forwarding to Non-UWA Email servers
Automatic forwarding of staff email to a non-UWA email service is not permitted. If a user is not permitted to access the service from a third party location (such as when working at a hospital for example) then an exception may be granted on application to the University Librarian and Director (Information Management).

10.2 Attachments
The maximum size of attachments to incoming and outgoing emails will be limited to 100 megabytes (MB).

10.3 Mailboxes
To maintain the manageability and capacity of the service, the maximum size of an individual's standard mailbox will be limited to 1 gigabyte (GB).

10.4 Closing of Accounts

10.4.1 On cessation of employment/association with the University, access to the service will be withdrawn.

10.4.2 In order to ensure continuity of business activity, an authorised person may, prior to the deletion of the mailbox, request ongoing access for a period of time to the mailbox of a user who has left the University. Please refer to the policy on Privacy of Electronic Material. Towards the end of the period, a warning message will be sent to the authorised person with information on when the mailbox will be deleted. At the expiry of the agreed period both the account and the contents of the mail box will be deleted.