J4: E-Mail, Telephone, and Voice Mail Usage

Responsibility for Maintenance: Information Technology Services

Date of most recent changes:  June 17, 2024

I. Policy Statement 

Telephone, voicemail, and email systems are resources and tools provided by OCC for the facilitation of communication in order to conduct College business. It is important for OCC employees and students to behave in a responsible, professional, ethical, and legal manner in using these resources and tools. Appropriate use, in general, means respecting the rights of other users and the integrity of the physical facilities, as well as all pertinent license and contractual agreements. Employees will use good judgment in personal use of these tools and such use will not interfere with work.

OCC students are responsible for maintaining secure access to their online accounts at OCC. These systems should be used to communicate securely with instructors and administrative services. 

Employees are responsible for properly managing their email accounts and are expected to understand that the email system is for transitory correspondence and is not intended to function as a personal, departmental or electronic filing system or data repository.  Employees are responsible for routinely reviewing the contents of their mailbox and move important data to OneDrive or SharePoint. 

The following email retention policies are in effect for students and employees:

Automatic Deletions: 

• Inbox and sent mail after 365 days
• Deleted emails after 14 days
• Junk email after 14 days
• Deleted emails after 14 days
• Draft emails after 14 days

OCC does not monitor the emails of employees and students. However, everyone should manage the expectations of privacy. OCC reserves the right to monitor, access, and disclose email information as appropriate and to prevent certain protocols to maintain security, prevent unauthorized access and protect the environment from viruses and other potential risk factors. Employees are encouraged to use a personal email address to conduct personal business. 

II. Reason for Policy 

To ensure that telephone, voicemail and email tools are consistently used in an effective manner for conveying accurate and timely information both internally and externally in support of the College’s enterprise, as well as a community relations tool that helps to promote the College’s character, mission, and priorities.

III. Applicability of the Policy 

This Policy applies to all members of the OCC campus community.

IV. Related Documents 

• Onondaga Community College Policy J1 Computer Systems and Communications Networks Usage  

V. Contacts  

VI. Procedures 

Department supervisors and academic department chairs are responsible for providing information regarding OCC’s policies and procedures regarding telephone, voicemail and email systems usage to all full-time and part-time employees and to encourage and monitor compliance.

• Inappropriate use of voicemail and/or email as a substitute for human contact;
• Failure to update voicemail and email greetings to better assist those we serve;
• Inappropriately lengthy voicemail and email greetings;
• Other uses or misuses of communication technologies that compromise the effectiveness and efficiency of College operations.

Email Usage Standards and Guidelines 

The following standards and guidelines apply to use of the email system.

Email Usage 

Email is a widely used communications tool to facilitate college business. The following guidelines are intended to help assure productive use of this technology.

1. Consider whether email is the correct medium for your message as opposed to face-to-face meeting, telephone, regular mail, etc.
2. Emails should contain only appropriate business-related content.
3. Include a short descriptive subject line that aids the recipient to understand the topic and follow the same rules of writing as you would use in any document.
4. Send the email message only to those who need to receive it and when you use a “Reply All” function, make sure you really want everyone to get your message.
5. Avoid using all caps. 
6. Email is not private and is easily forwarded on to others. Avoid sending confidential information by email.
7. If there is a requirement to share confidential data through email and no other communication method is available, it's recommended to use message encryption. 
8. Laws that apply to copyright, discrimination, harassment, defamation, and privacy for written communication apply to email as well.
9. Do not forward chain messages or reply to spam email. Be wary of hoaxes in the guise of virus warnings.
10. Automation tools, protocols, or rules to enable auto-forwarding (POP, IMAP, etc.) to move email from a college-managed email system to a non-college managed email system is prohibited. 
11. The email system has the capability to automatically append a “signature” at the end of each email. Your signature should include name, institution (Onondaga Community College), position/title, phone number and email ID. 
12. Your signature should include your contact data. It is inappropriate to include personal statements as part of your signature.

Voicemail 

To utilize voicemail as an effective means of communication, be succinct when recording your personal greeting and when leaving a message in another mailbox. Proper use of the telephone and voicemail system can result in a more productive working environment.

Fundamental Rules: The following rules should be followed when using voicemail:

• Check voicemail messages regularly. Return calls within 24 hours.
• Voicemail should not be used to screen calls.
• Calls should not be forwarded to voicemail unless absolutely necessary. Good judgment should be used.

Voicemail Greeting: When recording a greeting always include the following:

• Establish a standard greeting for your office or department. (See below)
• Identify yourself and your department.
• Indicate whom to call for “immediate assistance”. This should be a live person and not another voicemail box. Please indicate your name and the hours of operation for the department.
• Notify callers when on vacation or on extended leave. When appropriate, let the caller know whom to contact in your absence.
• Greetings should not include personal “tag” lines containing messages of a spiritual, philosophical or a personal (non-business related) nature. 
• To achieve a uniform presentation to the public, voice mail greetings should begin with:

“You have reached (your name) in the (department) of Onondaga Community College.”

• The remainder of the greeting could be tailor-made for each individual employee/department. The following is a suggested greeting:
  “I am not available to take your call right now, but your message is important to me. Please leave your name and number with a brief message (that will help me to handle your request or to reply more quickly, etc.).” 

If it’s a recording for a department function, i.e. transcript requests, faculty questions about report deadline dates, etc., then a customized message should be made to give callers more information or direct callers to another extension, or perform another step to accomplish their goals.

To maximize the features of our voicemail system and keep us in a positive light, no caller should be left in doubt about the disposition of his/her call. Reassurance should be given that each call to this campus is being taken seriously and handled efficiently.

To withstand scrutiny, voicemail should be accessed each day and acted upon quickly. If one is on vacation, or away from the phone for an extended period of time, a clear message to that effect should be placed on the phone and then changed immediately upon your return.

Leaving a Message: When leaving messages (voicemail or otherwise) consider the following:

• Speak clearly and identify yourself (name and business).
• Keep messages brief. Requests for information that are complete and concise allow the recipient to quickly and accurately respond to your call.
• When leaving a voicemail message, keep content of the voicemail appropriate for business.
• Stating the date and time the message is left is a good idea.
• Always leave a direct call back number and repeat numbers slowly. This will allow the caller to more easily and correctly return the call.

Approved by OCC Board of Trustees April 3, 2006

Updated and approved by the President June 29, 2009

Updated and approved by the President June 19, 2015

Updated and approved by the President April 20, 2016

Updated and approved by the President March 28, 2016

Updated and approved by the President July 10, 2019

Updated and approved by the President June 21, 2021

Updated and approved by the President June 26, 2023

Updated and approved by the President June 17, 2024