Official Electronic Correspondence with Faculty, Staff and Students
Chapter 3460
Revised/Reviewed: 09/2010, 01/2023, 05/2024
Table of Contents
.010 Introduction
.020 Policy
.030 Forwarding of Email
.040 Communicating Confidential Information
.050 Questions
.010 Introduction
There is an increasing need for efficient communication with and among faculty, staff, and students in order to conduct official business at Kansas State University. All faculty, staff, and students are issued a K-State eID and an email account for use throughout the time they are a student or an employee. The definition of an official University email address is eID@ksu.edu or eID@k-state.edu Although email is not the only form of formal communication, email is an appropriate mechanism for formal communication by the University with faculty, staff and students. If faculty, staff, or students choose to forward their mail to another email address (AOL, Hotmail, departmental server, etc.), their primary campus email address remains the official destination for official university correspondence.
.020 Policy
Email shall be considered an appropriate mechanism for official communication by Kansas State University with faculty, staff, and students. Email shall also be considered an appropriate mechanism for official communication by faculty with students. The University has the right to send official communications via email to faculty, staff, and students with the full expectation that those communications will be received and read in a timely fashion. The same expectation may be held for faculty communicating via email with students.
Official communications will be sent to the recipients' official University email addresses. Faculty, staff, and students are expected to check their email on a frequent and consistent basis in order to stay current with University and/or faculty-student related communications.
Faculty, staff and students receiving official email communication must insure that there is sufficient space in their accounts to allow for email to be delivered. It should be recognized that certain communications may be time-critical. Faculty, staff, and students will not be held responsible for an interruption in their ability to access an email message due to a system-related problem that may prevent the timely delivery or access to the message (power outages, system viruses, etc.).
.030 Forwarding of Email
Faculty, staff, and students who choose to have their email forwarded to a private, unofficial email address (e.g., aol.com, yahoo.com, hotmail.com, cox.net) outside the official university network address (ksu.edu) do so at their own risk. The University is not responsible for any difficulties that may occur in the proper or timely transmission or access of email forwarded to any unofficial email address.
.040 Communicating Confidential Information
Users of electronic mail systems should be aware that, in addition to being subject to authorized access, electronic mail in its present form is not secure and is, therefore, vulnerable to unauthorized access and modification by third parties. Confidential information, such as student grades, should not be sent to a student with a private, unofficial, non-K-State email account (i.e., aol.com, yahoo.com, hotmail.com, cox.net, etc.). Faculty may require students to provide their official K-State email address (eID@ksu.edu) to receive a reply. A recommended step is to provide generic replies only, directing students to University tools that require authentication, such as K-State Online and Blackboard.
.050 Questions
Questions regarding this policy should be sent to the Vice President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer (CIO).
