Standards, Guidelines and Procedures for Students:
E-mail as an Official Means of Communications with Students
Standards: Student Responsibilities
Students are responsible for receiving and reading in a timely manner official campus communications sent to their university-assigned e-mail address (user@calpoly.edu).
Exceptions will be allowed for students who are unable to receive e-mail due to authorized leaves or other special circumstances documented with the university. However, students are responsible to notify and make arrangements with the appropriate university offices to document any exceptions.
A student who chooses to forward campus e-mail to an unofficial e-mail address is responsible for ensuring that all official campus communications sent to their official university e-mail address, including attachments, are read. Redirected e-mail does not absolve a student from responsibilities associated with official communications.
If replying to an official campus communication from a non-University account, students must include sufficient contact information to enable the university to contact them, e.g., their full name and university-assigned e-mail address in the message body.
General Guidelines
- All students are assigned a University e-mail account when they become eligible to enroll for courses. This is the address University offices will use to send official communications.
- Students may opt to forward messages sent to their university account to an outside service provider, but are advised to do so at their own risk. Cal Poly is not responsible for the handling of e-mail by outside vendors or systems.
- If forwarding University e-mail to an unofficial account, students should fully understand how that e-mail system handles quotas, spam, attachments, etc.
- If forwarding University e-mail to an unofficial account, do not identify or tag messages coming from @calpoly.edu addresses as “junk” or “spam” e-mail. This can lead to non-delivery of ALL e-mail from Cal Poly by some Internet service providers (e.g., AOL)
- Students should check e-mail on a frequent and regular basis in order to stay current with University-related communications, recognizing that some communications may be time-critical. It is recommended that e-mail be checked daily, but at least twice per week.
- Students will continue to receive messages sent from @calpoly.edu addresses that are not covered by this policy. While these messages may be of interest and informative, under this policy, students are responsible for acting on official e-mails only.
- Consider creating a folder specifically for receiving official campus communications. As messages are received, create a filter that will automatically deliver messages sent from specific @calpoly.edu addresses used to send official e-mails (e.g., mycalpolystudentinfo, servicedesk, registration, etc.) to that folder.
- Students should contact the campus department responsible for sending the message if they have any doubts or questions about the validity or content of the message.
- Cal Poly cannot validate that an e-mail communication is from a student unless it comes from a valid @calpoly.edu address. When e-mailing the university from an unofficial e-mail account, students should include their full name and @calpoly.edu address in the message body or they may be asked to resubmit their query from their campus account.
- Regular e-mail management will minimize the risk that the inbox will be full, causing e-mail to be returned to the sender with an error. Undeliverable messages returned because of either a full inbox or use of a spam filter will be considered delivered, without further action required of the University.
- Violations of this policy should be reported to abuse@calpoly.edu.
For Assistance or More Information:
Technical Questions:
ITS Service Desk
Email: servicedesk@calpoly.edu
Voice: (805) 756-7000
Online: http://servicedesk.calpoly.edu
Office: Building 14, Room 114, Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Policy Questions and Report Violations:
ITS Policy Assurance / Abuse Team
Email: abuse@calpoly.edu
Voice: (805) 756-7000
Fax: (805) 746-2000
Online: http://security.calpoly.edu/policies/index.html
Online: http://security.calpoly.edu
