Policy 270.20 Adjunct Faculty E-mail

Owner: Senior Vice President and Chief Academic Officer

1. Purpose

   This Policy governs the issuance, usage, maintenance, and termination of University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) adjunct faculty e-mail accounts ("Adjunct E-mail Accounts"). This policy applies to adjunct faculty members teaching worldwide (Adelphi, Asia, and Europe).

2. Objective and Benefits

   The objective of this Adjunct Faculty E-mail Policy is to provide all UMGC adjunct faculty members a UMGC e-mail account in order to facilitate UMGC related communications with:

   1. Students

   2. The UMGC administrative and academic staff worldwide

   3. The adjunct faculty member's colleagues

   4. This UMGC e-mail address is designated as the adjunct faculty member's e-mail address of record with the University, the MyUMGC student portal, and the learning management system; and its use is required in all University–related business or classroom student Interactions conducted via e-mail.

   1. Branding.  The UMGC email address identifies the professional affiliation of all faculty and staff working for the university.

   2. Service. The university account provides a secure email account from which adjunct can correspond with students. In this respect, the provision of an email account puts adjunct faculty on the same footing as full-time faculty and staff. Adjunct faculty with UMGC email accounts will have access to UMGC's 360 help desk for any problems concerning their account.

   3. Ease of maintenance.  The provision of a university account ensures that active adjunct faculty members do not have to be concerned about changes in their account by another third-party provider. The provision of a UMGC account also makes it much easier for the university to maintain a current record of adjunct faculty accounts, since those accounts will have the same domain and will follow stipulated naming conventions.

   4. Ease of communication.  Providing adjunct faculty with email addresses that have the UMGC domain and can be listed on UMGC's Outlook server will allow other faculty and university administrators to easily find adjunct faculty email addresses within UMGC's Outlook Global Address Book.

   5. Protection of the confidentiality of student information and due process rights.  Communication between faculty and students should not reside on third-party servers where the information may not be retrievable after a given point in time. To appropriately resolve grievance proceedings, initiated by faculty or by students, it is crucial that UMGC have the entire record of communication. Providing an email account for faculty is meant to ensure that the university has access to all communication in such cases.

   6. The adjunct faculty e-mail address can be used in conjunction with the private messaging inside the learning management system to facilitate student-instructor communication inside and outside the classroom.

3. Definitions

   The following defined terms have specific meaning assigned for purposes of this policy:

   Campus E-mail Address:  The e-mail account issued to adjunct faculty in the form username@faculty.umgc.edu.

   Adjunct Faculty: For purposes of this Policy, Adjunct Faculty refers to adjunct faculty teaching courses who meet the following requirements:

   1. Are newly hired and have not taught a class yet,

   2. Have taught at least one course in the last 18 months, or

   3. Have not taught in the last 18 months but who have remained in participation status at the request of the applicable academic or program director.

4. Issuance, Use and Termination of Adjunct E-Mail Accounts

   All Adjunct Faculty will be issued Adjunct E-mail Accounts in accordance with the following policy guidelines:

   1. The initial issuance of Campus E-mail Address may be accomplished in phases over a reasonable period of time, if necessary for orderly distribution or control, beginning with the Adelphi Adjunct Faculty in spring 2009—with Asia and Europe faculty following as operational and technical conditions permit. Addresses for new Adjunct Faculty will be created and issued during the hiring process. Adjunct Faculty will receive their Campus E-mail Address information at the same time as they receive their MyUMGC access information. The Adjunct Faculty member's e-mail accounts will be terminated concurrent with the termination of the Adjunct Faculty's MyUMGC portal account.

   2. Adjunct Faculty serving in a dual role (adjunct faculty and staff member) will be able to use both username@faculty.umgc.edu and username@umgc.edu e-mail addresses. Both e-mail addresses will be linked to the single, existing e-mail account. Messages sent from the existing e-mail account will automatically default and be sent from the primary staff address, username@umgc.edu. The username@faculty.umgc.edu account will be terminated concurrent with termination of the adjunct faculty member role.

   3. The fixed date for the issuance of all Adelphi adjunct faculty e-mail addresses is the Spring 2010 term. Starting with the Summer 2010 term, all Adelphi Adjunct Faculty will be required to use their assigned Campus E-mail Address for all UMGC business and/or classroom student interactions conducted via e-mail. The Europe and Asia rollouts of adjunct faculty e-mail addresses have a target date of issuance in Summer 2010 and mandatory use in Fall 2010; however, these target dates are subject to revision if required by unique technical or operational considerations. As with all e-mail for UMGC business, all adjunct faculty communication must remain proper and professional in nature and contents. Additionally, nothing in this policy is intended to detract from the full and free utilization of private messaging and private e-mail capability embedded within the learning management system.

   4. All Adjunct Faculty Accounts are password protected. The Campus E-mail Address password is to be the same as their MyUMGC portal password. To assure account level, as well as system wide security, all e-mail passwords will be set to expire in 90 days.

   5. Automatic forwarding of e-mail messages to an account external to UMGC is prohibited. The prohibition is required due to server security considerations and the sensitive and confidential nature of the UMGC information.

   6. The e-mail account quota size and attachment size for Adjunct Faculty is subject to change without notification. At the implementation of this Policy, it is the same as for UMGC academic and administrative staff: account quota: 250 megabytes (250MB); attachments: 20 megabytes (20MB).

   7. This policy and all related implementing procedures will conform to the University Systems of Maryland Legislative Audit mandate on State Information Technology Security and Standards.

5. Responsibilities

   The Senior Vice President and Chief Academic Officer (SVP/CAO) has overall responsibility for this policy. The Associate Vice Provost, Faculty Affairs is the SVP/CAO's designated representative and assigned oversight responsibility for this policy.

   The Office of Information Technology is responsible for the coordination and implementation of all technical and system requirements to include: providing systems access, systems security, and the coordination of help desk technical support.

   Each school is responsible for: identifying adjunct faculty eligible for e-mail accounts and advising adjunct faculty on the proper use of the e-mail account.

This policy is being implemented to secure the following compelling benefits for UMGC administrators, academic staff, and adjunct faculties.