Purposes and Limitations of the University Email System
Objectives:
Electronic mail or ‘email’ services are provided by the University in support of the teaching, research and public service mission of the University.
Users:
Users of University email services are limited primarily to University students and staff. Accounts for staff will be available on the starting date of their appointment. However a staff member who has been confirmed with an appointment at the University, but has not yet reported for duty, may request an early activation of their email service. This request must be endorsed in writing by the department head.
University Representation:
Email users shall not give the impression that they are representing, giving opinions, or otherwise making statements on behalf of the University or any unit of the University, unless appropriately authorized to do so.
Security:
The University, in general, cannot and does not wish to be the arbiter of the contents of email. Neither can the University, in general, protect users from receiving email that they may find offensive. However members of the University community are strongly encouraged to use the same personal and professional courtesy and consideration with email as they would with other forms of communication.
False Identity:
There is no guarantee that email received is in fact sent by the purported sender, since it is relatively easy for senders to disguise their identity, although it is a violation of University Policy and the Laws of Hong Kong SAR to do so. Furthermore, email that is forwarded may also be modified. As with print documents, in cases of doubt, receivers of email messages should check with the purported sender to validate authorship or authenticity.
University email users shall not employ a false identity. However email may be sent anonymously provided this does not violate any law or University policy, and does not interfere with the University’s normal business.
Prohibited Use:
University email services may not be used for unlawful activities or for commercial purposes that are not under the auspices of the University. Moreover, email services shall not be used for purposes that could reasonably be expected to cause, directly or indirectly, excessive strain on any computing facilities, or unwarranted or unsolicited interference with others' use of email or computer systems.
Users should not violate the use of email services by sending or forwarding:
email chain letters;
‘spam’, that is, exploiting mail list servers or similar broadcast systems for purposes beyond their intended scope to amplify the widespread distribution of unsolicited email;
or ‘letter-bombs’, that is, resending the same email repeatedly to one or more recipients causing interference with the recipient's use of email.
Managing your Email Account
Password Protection:
Users are requested to change the initial password given to them as soon as possible and to keep passwords confidential at all times. Email accounts provided to individual users should not be shared or transferred. Users are responsible for the use of their email accounts at all times.
Email Quotas, Attachments and Exceeding Quotas:
Students may store up to 100 MB of email in their accounts, while staff may store up to 1 GB. This includes email stored in the ‘Inbox’ and in all other folders for each email account.
Emails with large attachments use a lot of space and should be avoided. Therefore the maximum size for an email message in the University email system is set at 10 MB. Users are encouraged to delete large attachments or move them to other storage as soon as possible.
WARNING: When your total email usage exceeds your quota, new emails will not be accepted and will be returned to the sender!
You may call the helpdesk hotline to ask for a temporary increase in your quota. But you must delete sufficient emails to bring the email usage back under quota as soon as possible. When your usage is reduced below quota, you will start receiving emails again.
Backup of Email Data:
Users are encouraged to make a regular backup of their own email data onto local or off-line storage (such as writable CD, DVD or USB flash drive). The University does not maintain central or distributed email archives of email sent or received. Email is normally backed up, only to assure system integrity and reliability, not to provide for future retrieval, although this may be possible at times. Operators of University email services are not required to retrieve email from such back-up facilities upon the holder's request, although on occasion they may do so as a courtesy.
Termination
Staff:
All employees of the university are required to get clearance re their email accounts at the conclusion of their employment with the university. As part of this clearance, all computer access and email accounts assigned to the employee will be deactivated and all associated data will be irreversibly purged.
Under special circumstances and with the written endorsement of the respective head of department, an employee may request extended use of their email address. Such extension of the email address will be restricted to a forwarding service to the user’s external email account, hence no email data will be stored on the University email system. This kind of arrangement, if applicable, will not be longer than 6 months after the user’s departure.
Students:
The University email system is for the use of currently enrolled students only. Email accounts and all associated data will be irreversibly purged after 30 days of non-enrolled status. Students who re-enroll after an account has been purged will be provided with a re-activated account, but previously purged emails will not be able to be recovered.
Final year students who are graduating will be given an Alumni email account upon their confirmation of graduation. It should be noted that it is not possible to transfer the contents of the student’s current email account to the Alumni account. The Alumni account will continue to be available to Lingnan Graduates.
