NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY

Electronic Mail (e-mail) Policy

Northern Illinois University participates in a range of computing networks and many members of the university community, including faculty, staff and students, use electronic mail (e-mail) in their day-to-day activities. E-mail services are provided on university owned computing and networking systems to further the university's mission of research, instruction and public service. Use of e-mail should be consistent with this mission and this policy.

Acceptable use of e-mail is based on common sense, common decency, and civility applied to the electronic communications environment.

Unacceptable uses include, but are not limited to, the following:

Using e-mail for any purpose which violates federal or state laws.
Using e-mail for commercial purposes.
Misrepresenting your identity or affiliation in e-mail communications.
Sending patently harassing, intimidating, abusive or offensive material to or about others.
Intercepting, disrupting or altering electronic communications packets.
Using someone else's identity and password.
Causing congestion on the network by such things as the propagation of "chain letters," "broadcasting" inappropriate messages to lists or individuals, or excessive use of the shared data store of the e-mail post office.

Communications in this medium are protected by the same laws and policies, and are subject to the same limitations, as communications in other media. However, users should exercise caution when committing confidential information to electronic media because the confidentiality of such material cannot be guaranteed. For example, e-mail messages can be saved indefinitely on the receiving computer. Copies can easily be made and forwarded to others either electronically or on paper. Messages sent to nonexisting or incorrect user names are delivered to a person designated as Postmaster for either the remote or local site. Routine maintenance or system administration of a computer may result in the contents of files and communications being seen (network and system administrators are, however, expected to treat the contents of electronic files as private and confidential).

Also, under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, electronic files are treated in the same way as paper files. Any official university documents (as defined by law) in the files of employees of the State of Illinois are considered to be public documents, and may be subject to inspection through FOIA. In such cases, the campus Freedom of Information Officer should inspect files to determine which portions may be exempt from disclosure. Any inspection of electronic files, and any action based upon such inspection, will be governed by all applicable U. S. and Illinois laws and by university policies.

Access to the information technology environment in general, and electronic mail in particular, at Northern Illinois University is a privilege and must be treated as such by all users of these systems. Like any other campus facility, abuse of these privileges can be a matter of legal action or official campus disciplinary procedures. Depending on the seriousness of an offense, violation of the policy can result in penalties ranging from reprimand (i.e., don't do this any more), to loss of access, to referral to university authorities for disciplinary action. In a case where unacceptable use severely impacts performance or security, in order to sustain reasonable performance and secure services for the rest of the user community the Computing Facilities will immediately suspend an individual's access privileges.

This policy is subject to amendment at any time. For a copy of the most recent policy see the Northern Illinois University web server at http://www.niu.edu/.