Email Policies

The use of Aurora University email accounts must be in full accord with general the AU Computer Use policy.

Account creation

Every student, faculty member, and staff member at AU receives a set of computer accounts, including an electronic mail account. Account names are normally based on a variant of the user’s name. Student user IDs include a two-digit number after the name to help distinguish between users with similar names. User names are created by an automated process and cannot normally be modified.

Email accounts, like all university computer accounts, are subject to removal when the user leaves the university. For details on current account management policies, see Account Policies.

By request Information Technology Services will set up email accounts, or email aliases pointing to actual email accounts, on behalf of departments that need an email address for brochures, web pages, and other official purposes. These accounts are subject to the same policies as individual accounts.

Email addresses are considered directory information and as such are subject to publication. According to current policy, faculty and staff email addresses are published at various locations on the official AU web site. Student email addresses are not made available to the general public.

AU offices routinely send official university notifications to AU email account holders as a replacement for hardcopy distribution. It is the responsibility of users to either monitor their assigned AU email accounts or have their AU mail forwarded to a different address that they check on a regular basis. Failure on the part of an AU email account holder to receive or read in a timely manner official University communications sent to the user’s official email address does not absolve that person from knowing and complying with the content of that message.

AU does not support the open sending of mass mailings to AU email accounts. Instead, AU maintains a set of automated mailing lists for the distribution of email messages to specific user groups. Each of these lists is designed with a specific purpose and community of users in mind and the policies governing each list varies.

Information Technology Services staff use a set of standard security techniques to protect the university’s servers, including the email server, from unauthorized access. However, since email is by nature an insecure form of communication users should have no general expectation of the privacy of messages sent through the University system. Messages, once posted, are no longer under the sender’s control and may be archived, forwarded, or printed by anyone receiving a copy.

No AU staff member is permitted to inspect, monitor, or disclose without authorization email messages that pass through the AU email system. Under certain circumstances it may be necessary for the IT staff or other appropriate University officials to access email files for purposes of system maintenance or the investigation of abuse or violations of University policies. Access to messages accessed under these circumstances will be limited to users authorized to conduct the investigation or otherwise as required by law.

Information Technology Services staff maintains backup copies of email files stored on the server as a safeguard against system failure. These backups are not retained as an archival record, and only the most recent backup runs are saved.