Policies

Communication using Stanly Community College (SCC) email systems is often perceived as official correspondence.  This policy covers appropriate use of any email sent from a SCC email address and applies to all employees, students, vendors, and agents operating on behalf of SCC. The following email procedures have been established to minimize the risk of tarnishing the public image of SCC when sending email messages.

1. Users may not store, display, or disseminate unlawful communications of any kind, including but not limited to threats of violence, obscenity, child pornography, or other illegal communications. This provision applies to any electronic communication distributed or sent within the College's network. Employees or students who receive any emails with this content from any SCC email account should report the matter to the Chief Technology Officer immediately.

2. Faculty, staff, and students with authorized accounts may use the SCC email systems for scholarly purposes and official campus business. Sending chain letters, non-institutional solicitations, or joke emails from a SCC email account is prohibited. Virus or other malware warnings and mass mailings from SCC shall be approved by the Chief Technology Officer before sending. These restrictions also apply to the forwarding of email received by a SCC employee or student.

3. Due to the insecure nature of email transmission and storage, email should not be used to transmit personally identifiable information unless:

• There is a compelling business need to share such information that the supervising data owner has approved;
• It is sent and received using authorized email servers and devices that connect to the network; and
• It is encrypted using an authorized encryption technology.

Credit/debit card data is prohibited from being transmitted or stored in email servers and/or devices that connect to the network.

4.  SCC employees and students shall have no expectation of privacy in anything they store, send, or receive on the SCC email system. SCC may monitor messages without prior notice. SCC is not obliged to monitor email messages.

5. Violations of this policy will be treated as academic misconduct, employee misconduct, misdemeanor, or felony as appropriate. For noncriminal matters, a violation could result in suspension of the user's access rights. A second violation may result in permanent suspension of access privileges. Misdemeanor or felony charges may be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and may result in immediate and permanent loss of privileges. Student disciplinary proceedings will be initiated against student violators, and SCC faculty and staff, where appropriate, may face sanctions cited above, up to and including termination.

Email Encryption Procedure