Email Guidance

Purpose: 

To consolidate some important university and college policies and best practices regarding work (employee) email.

Relevant Definitions

Acceptable Use: The term used by UT/ISO to describe the terms and conditions required by any person (User) accessing university data, records, or equipment. (see ISO site for details)

• University employees must read and acknowledge these requirements on an annual basis (at a minimum) in order to retain access to university systems. (If you don't, your EID will be locked.)

COLA: College of Liberal Arts Dean's Office; especially Human Resources (HR) team, for this article.

EID: unique non-confidential electronic signifier used by UT to identify an individual

Email: Electronic mail; "any message, image, form, attachment, data, or other communication sent, received, or stored within an electronic mail system." (from ISO website)

ISO: UT's Information Security Office; the office responsible for implementing Federal, State, UT System, and UT Austin policies to safeguard data produced by--or has any interaction with--any university system, employee, or office. 

Update Work Contact Information

• All university employees should have a current work email posted in Workday; this is typically completed during initial employee onboarding. (Edit Personal Information WIG)
• This email address must be a university e-mail address (utexas.edu). (See "Email Usage" info below)
• If you update your email address, such as to reflect a name change, don't forget to update Workday as well.

Email Usage:

Acceptable Usage Policy - From ISO's website; full policy details can be found here (it is a good and thorough reference). Some highlights regarding email:

• Employees are required to use a university email, rather than a personal email, to conduct university business. 
• "Emails sent or received by Users in the course of conducting University business are University Data that are subject to state records retention and security requirements."
  • In other words, "your" email does not belong to you; users should not have an expectation that they are entitled to personal privacy with respect to university emails.
• All of the university conduct requirements (e.g., no solicitation, no political campaigning, avoiding conflicts of interest, etc.) naturally apply to email but can be easy to forget: 
  • Example of what Not to do: Email everyone in your building to let them know you are selling Girl Scout cookies for your niece, inviting them to stop by your office to purchase sugary goodness.
• Tip: (Perhaps a bit outdated, but still useful!) Do not send any email you would not be comfortable seeing published on the front page of the Austin-American Statesman.

UT Brand Guidelines for Email Signatures

• COLA strongly suggests following the best practices outlined here with respect to Email Signatures for university email messages.
  • Please note: When communicating within the scope of your employment, you are representing your team/office/unit/college/university as well as your individual self. 

Links:

Information Security Policy (ISO website)

UT Workday 

UT Brand Guidelines for Email (University Marketing website)