Electronic Communications

I. INTRODUCTION

II. POLICY STATEMENT

1. Official Means of Communication to the University Community
   1. The university shall use electronic communications as an official means of communication to convey information to the university community (employees, affiliate staff, associates, students, alumni, and donors).  Electronic communication often refers to email, but can also include other forms of communication.
   2. All employees, students, appropriate affiliate staff and appropriate associates shall be provided an official university email account1 for conducting university business.
   3. Members of the university community are responsible for information contained in electronic communications from their official university email account.
   4. The university may also ask employees to subscribe to other electronic communications such as instant messaging or text messaging for emergency communications as approved by the Chief Information Officer or Vice President of Administration.
2. Email Procedures
   1. Preferred Platform
      
      The eComm Program (Salesforce, Marketing Cloud, and Cvent) is the preferred platform and is the only supported tool for marketing communications at CU. The program protects the operational integrity, value, and availability of university communications, constituent data, campus networks, security, and electronic communications services. Mass audience and bulk email communications shall be sent via eComm or receive an exception (see eComm policy for description of exception process).
   2. Accessibility
      
      Communications shall be crafted to respect accessibility concerns and meet Accessibility of Information and Communication Technology policy stipulations.
   3. Branding
      
      Communications shall be crafted in accordance system and campus brand identity standards.
   4. CAN-SPAM
      
      All CU communicators shall send communication preferences (opt-out, opt-in, interests) data back to CU’s Central Information Warehouse (CIW) and shall, in turn, incorporate opt-out data from the CIW to ensure compliance with CAN-SPAM and that email preferences are honored. Do Not Email and Do Not Contact flags for external audiences are respected in audience definitions.
   5. Data
      
      CU shall own all constituent data, regardless of where it is housed or the unit that creates/maintains it.  In some cases, units’ constituent data shall be shared and included in communications distributed to a broader interested audience (i.e. the President’s electronic newsletter).
   6. Privacy
      
      FERPA privacy flags shall be respected in all communications; constituents with these flags shall only receive email messages related to educational business. Audiences defined by protected classes – Office of the Registrar, Strategic Relations and Communications and the Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance - shall be excluded from communications as deemed appropriate. Other federal laws, including HIPAA, shall be respected in content and execution.
   7. Server Loads and Send Times
      
      Users shall throttle their send rate in order to balance server loads. Send rates shall not exceed five messages per second. Messages to audiences containing over 10,000 university email addresses shall be sent outside normal business hours.
3. Official Communications Sent on Behalf of the University
   
   When sending official mass electronic communicationsOfficial Mass Electronic CommunicationsSee Section III. Definitions, care must be taken to: 1) ensure the message delivery does not adversely affect the network, email routing or mail server infrastructure; 2) ensure that communications are consistent with university policy; and 3) not hinder the ability to validate that an electronic communication is legitimate.
   1. All official mass electronic communications sent on behalf of the university, including, but not limited to, promotions, awareness, invitations, events, and notifications, shall originate from authorized university domains.  To assist validating the legitimacy of a communication the Office of Information Security (www.cu.edu/ois) shall publish authorized domains.
   2. All official mass electronic communications sent on behalf of the university should only contain web address links to authorized university domains.
   3. Any exceptions, such as need to include links to non-university domains, must be approved by the appropriate Information Security OfficerInformation security officerThe person who performs day-to-day management of and is the point of contact for the IT Security Program at the campus level..
   4. To assist in validating the legitimacy of a communication the university shall archive official mass electronic communications in the university web portal until no longer needed for reference.
4. Information Technology Office Responsibilities
   1. The appropriate IT office will use reasonable methods to ensure official communications are delivered to university-owned and controlled servers and that content is also made available online.
   2. The appropriate IT office will assign the official university email address where the university will send email communications. This official address will be the address stored in the campus or system-maintained directory.

III. DEFINITIONS

IV. RELATED POLICIES

V. HISTORY

VI. KEY WORDS