Purpose
This document establishes rules for the use of the Western Michigan University email address.
Scope
This rule has been developed to encourage the use of official WMU email addresses for conducting official business of the University. The use of other email accounts (e.g., Yahoo, Gmail, Microsoft Live, ISP systems such as Spectrum/Charter and SBC, legacy AOL users, etc.) to conduct official business with enrolled students is prohibited. This rule applies to all work-related email engaged in by all University employees, faculty, and staff. All such email communications must use the University's email system.
Rule statements
- Email addresses are assigned at the time of Bronco NetID creation.
- Student email addresses are in the format of firstname.middle initial.lastname at wmich.edu.
- Faculty and staff email addresses are typically* in the format of firstname.lastname at wmich.edu.
- Only email sent to the University email address of record will be supported.
- Email should not be automatically forwarded to off-campus computer accounts from your University assigned email account - see JUSTIFICATION
- Email sent in the format of username (Bronco NetID) at wmich.edu is not supported.
- All email sent from an administrative or academic office is considered to be an official notice and must contain a valid "to", "from", and "reply-to", and identify the person or process that initiated the message.
- Since some official communications may be time-sensitive, students, faculty and staff are responsible for reading their WMU email on a frequent and regular basis.
* Middle initials may be used in faculty or staff email addresses when more than one person exists with the same first and last names. Numbers will be added to any email addresses if more than one first, middle initial, and last name exists.
Definitions
WMU email address is the official email address assigned at the time one's Bronco NetID is created.
Bronco NetID is a unique identifier that is automatically assigned when a student is admitted, or a faculty or staff member is hired. It remains active as long as enrollment, employment, or official University affiliation continues.
Justification
Western Michigan University uses email to communicate official University information of all kinds to students, faculty, and staff.
If non-wmich.edu email addresses are used, and email is sent to Yahoo, Gmail, Microsoft Live, ISP systems such as Spectrum/Charter and SBC, legacy AOL users, etc., and the person receiving the message from wmich.edu marks the message as spam, then a percentage of email sent to others with those ISP's address from WMU is also blocked for a period of days. The percentage increase as the number of people marking the message as spam increases. This means that large numbers of WMU students or prospective students, would not receive official communications from WMU. It is therefore critical that all official email to WMU students, prospective students, faculty, or staff be sent to the official wmich.edu email address and from an official wmich.edu address.
Enforcement
Individuals who conduct official business for Western Michigan University shall abide by the rules of this policy. Any person found to be in violation of this policy, will be subject to appropriate disciplinary action as defined by current University policy.
Reference
Document action
Revised: April 2019