As the availability and use of e-mail on campus increases, advisors will individually determine the best usage for their offices. Issues of time, quality of advising and confidentiality will be some of the factors to consider. The e-mail address is part of the student educational record and therefore, falls under FERPA. It is considered to be public information; thus, a student has the right to restrict release of the address, just like current and permanent address information. Confidentiality is of particular concern. An e-mail message travels on a network that is not secure; i.e., there is no encryption of the message, and a password and message can be "sniffed" as they travel. No method of communication is always foolproof, and while the use of e-mail cannot be considered 100% secure, certain practices can minimize problems.
Here are some suggested procedures:
Students
1. Know the recipient. Double check to ensure that you have the correct student e-mail address before sending a message. If you are responding to a question, make sure that your response is not going to be transmitted to a distribution list. Your local support person can help you do this depending on the e-mail system you are using.2. While you may consider a student's question to you to be permission to respond, try to avoid sending specific confidential information such as the student's GPA. Consider all other options of communication before using e-mail to transmit confidential information. If a student asks about grades, you may be able to refer the student to Insite records. Never include confidential information, such as the student's ID number or grades, in the subject line of the message.
3. Ask students to come in to talk rather than attempt to answer long, involved questions via e-mail. If the student cannot come in, state in your answer that the information is complicated and that it is the student's responsibility to make sure that he/she understands the message. Encourage the student to ask clarifying questions. Remember also that your message can be easily forwarded to (and even edited by) others.
4. Clean out your saved e-mails periodically by printing them or downloading them to your PC and then deleting them from your e-mail account. Again, your computer support person may be able to suggest additional ways to safeguard the information. Deletions should be done immediately if the message contains confidential information.
5. Do not electronically transmit a file that contains confidential information (e.g., a list of your majors with GPAs). Rather, download the information to a diskette.
6. If you send e-mail messages to your majors or other student groups, be aware of the reach of the list used and be prepared to deal with returning questions.
School Officials
7. When you need to transmit student information to other school officials, such as exceptions or course substitutions, use the most secured e-mail address.
Parents
8. You may receive questions from parents via email. Aside from the normal consideration of confidentiality referenced in the back of the Schedule of Classes, be aware of the increased loss of security as your message travels beyond the IU network. Verifying the identity of the sender is difficult in this situation as well.
Bloomington Academic Council List
9. The BAC e-mail distribution list is for official, noteworthy information that is useful to all campus advisors. Lengthy discussions and less momentous news may be dealt with in some other form, such as a chatroom or a flyer. If you have a question about the appropriateness of the information, contact the president of BAC.
The list name is: bac-list@indiana.edu
10. Messages will not be screened by the list owner, but rather BAC will rely on the common sense and discretion of list members in conforming to #9 above.