Procedure: Email and auxiliary accounts

Purpose

To set a framework for establishing University email accounts, auxiliary accounts, and team or resource calendars.

Definitions

Definitions of additional terms used in this document are provided in the overarching policy, Acceptable use of Information Technology.

Alias: an additional email address that can be used to direct email to an account e.g. tom.smith@anu.edu.au can be used to direct email to u1234567@anu.edu.au. It can be used to direct mail to one or more accounts.

Mail drop: a mailbox to which incoming emails can be directed e.g. u1234567@anu.edu.au may be directed to the mail drop u1234567@uds.anu.edu.au.

Procedure

1. University email must not be used to conduct personal business or unauthorised commercial activity. Limited personal use of University email is acceptable, however access can be revoked at any time and is subject to the same monitoring practices as employment related use.
2. All ANU email accounts, including alumni and auxiliary accounts, are subject to the Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), the Privacy Act 1988 and Australian Privacy Principles; and are thus subject to inspection of the data held within them for these kinds of investigations.
3. The requirement for, and usage of, email accounts other than personal accounts such as staff or student accounts may be periodically reviewed.
4. Staff and students must use their ANU email account for official University communications. In the event that communication is received by the University from ANU staff via a non-ANU email account, it is recommended that a response is sent to that person identifying the risks inherent in this action. A recommended response template is available on the ERMS.
5. Personal staff email accounts
6. All staff are issued a personal email account on their appointment to the University, using the format ‘firstname.lastname@anu.edu.au’. This account is established as part of the standard Human Resources induction procedure and does not require a separate request to the ANU Service Desk.

Personal student email accounts

7. All students will be issued a personal email account on their commencement at the University, using the format ‘university_id@anu.edu.au’. This account is established as part of the standard Student Administration induction procedure and does not require a separate request to the ANU Service Desk.
8. On occasion Honours and Higher Degree Research students may require an email address format of ‘firstname.lastname@anu.edu.au’. The process for avoiding duplicate named email addresses will be managed by the relevant Information Technology Services (ITS) team. Eligible students include Honours or Higher Degree Research students who are named as an investigator on an approved human research ethics protocol.

1. Students who wish to apply for a named email address will submit their request in writing to the relevant Associate Dean or Sub-Dean within their primary College for approval.
2. The Associate Dean or Sub-Dean will collate a list of students requesting named email addresses and submit this as a request to the ANU Service Desk.
3. Students will be notified of the change upon implementation.
4. In order to maintain operational efficiency, requests must only be made for students who genuinely require named email address for the purposes of their research.
5. On graduation, this email address will revert to ‘university_id@anu.edu.au’, which is why this format should be used on any research published by a student.

9. As of December 2013, all ANU alumni receive an ANU email account for life. These accounts are issued using the format ‘university_id@alumni.anu.edu.au’; however, the ‘university_id@anu.edu.au’ format will also continue to function. An additional format of ‘firstname.lastname@alumni.anu.edu.au’ will be available on request.
10. Alumni can opt out of their ANU email account for life by submitting a request to the ANU Service Desk.

Non-personal email accounts

11. Requests for non-personal email accounts are to be made using the Request for email or auxiliary account form. This includes the following account types:

1. Functional: reflects a specific position or role within the University, such as Vice-Chancellor or Dean. They can also reflect a responsibility, such as Privacy Officer. Functional accounts are issued using the format ‘position title.organisational unit@anu.edu.au’ or ‘keyword@anu.edu.au’. They also have the ability to send email using the alias.
2. Team/shared: can be established on behalf of several people who are responsible for the same service. Team/shared accounts are issued using the format ‘area name.organisational unit@anu.edu.au’.
3. Campaign: can be established for initiatives where a large volume of email correspondence is anticipated and are preferred for non-ongoing campaigns, one-off conferences, time limited projects, and tender processes. Campaign accounts are issued in the format ‘campaign keyword@anu.edu.au’ and must have an expiry date set at the time of creation.
4. Email address only: established to provide an email address that can be used as an alias. Up to five mail drops and two aliases can be specified.

12. The Request for email or auxiliary account form must be authorised by a Service Division Director, College General Manager, or their nominee.
13. Staff access can be added or removed from a non-personal email account by submitting a request to the ANU Service Desk. Such requests require the approval of the account owner.

Auxiliary accounts

14. Auxiliary accounts are accounts created and maintained solely within the University’s Identity and Access Management (IdAM) system. They are identified by the prefix ‘a’. The ID for an auxiliary account uses the format ‘aXXXXXX’ (e.g. a123456).
15. Auxiliary accounts are used for accessing the University’s networks where the user or usage does not fit within the staff or VaHA affiliation (as defined by Human Resources), student affiliation (as defined by Student Services), or alumni affiliation (as defined by Alumni Relations).
16. All auxiliary accounts must have an expiry date. Account uses and their maximum expiry date include:

1. training accounts: no longer than twelve months from the date of creation
2. testing accounts: no longer than twelve months from the date of creation
3. conference/workshop accounts: for the duration of the conference/workshop
4. University guests: no longer than two weeks from the date of creation
5. system/vendor accounts: no longer than twelve months from the date of creation
6. ANU non-award course students: for the duration of their course
7. organisations on campus and associated with ANU (e.g. residential halls/colleges, ANU Sport and Recreation, the ANU Union, Centre for Continuing Education): no longer than twelve months from the date of creation.

17. ANU non-award course and conference/workshop auxiliary accounts will not be renewed after their expiry date. Once expired these will be deleted and cannot be restored. All other account types are eligible for renewal.
18. The ANU Service Desk will advise the owner of renewable accounts one month before they are due to expire.
19. Requests for an auxiliary account must be submitted to the ANU Service Desk by an ANU staff member using the Request for email or auxiliary account form. The form must be authorised by a Service Division Director, College General Manager, or their nominee.
20. Auxiliary accounts will be granted the same basic access to University networks as a staff account, with the exception being that they will not receive a mailbox on the University’s corporate email system by default.
21. A mailbox can be requested for an auxiliary account, with the exception of University guests and training accounts, with the approval of the Service Division Director, College General Manager, or their nominee on the on the Request for email or auxiliary account form.
22. Auxiliary account access to University systems is granted and managed within each specific system and is at the discretion of the system owner.
23. Individuals granted auxiliary accounts may only use Information Technology (IT) facilities in a manner compatible with the goals and statutory obligations of the University, as well as complying with all relevant Statutes and Rules, policies, procedures, standards, and regulations. This is to be communicated and managed by the area or ANU staff member requesting the auxiliary account.
24. Service Divisions and Colleges are responsible for any costs incurred, or actions taken, by their auxiliary when using University IT facilities.

Team calendars

25. Team calendars are preferred for recording rosters and/or staff leave. They are created using the format ‘College/Division acronym – calendar name’ (e.g. ITS – Leave Calendar).
26. Team calendars use a shared Office 365 mailbox which requires no license and is limited to 5GB in size. It can have two levels of security:

1. Editor security access
2. Read-only security access (if required).

Room or resource calendar

27. Room or resource calendars are preferred for the automated booking of rooms and equipment and/or resources. They are issued using the following formats:

1. For a room calendar, ‘Building #, Building Name (if building has a name), Level # (if building has multiple floors and not a room number), Room # (if room has a number), Common Name (if room has a common name)’ (e.g. Building 43, Hancock West, Room 4.07, Student Equity Meeting Room).
2. For a resource calendar, ‘Area – Equipment/Resource Type – Description of Equipment/Resource’ (e.g. FBS – Car – YJA78Q).

28. By default, bookings for resources can be made up to 365 days in advance, for a maximum duration of 24 hours, and all ANU staff have reviewer rights. These defaults can be modified by submitting a request to the ANU Service Desk. There are three levels of security access:

1. Delegate: can create, modify, or remove any meeting in the calendar. When a member of the ‘Requires approval’ group creates a meeting on the calendar, all members of the delegate group receive an email to approve or reject the meeting request.
2. Auto approved: can create new meetings in the room or resource calendar. Auto approved meetings are issued via an invite from the creator’s calendar to the room or equipment/resource calendar (i.e. the resource calendar is listed as an attendee). Auto approved individuals only possess rights to modify their own meetings by changing the date and time or deleting the meeting request in their own calendar.
3. Requires approval: can send a meeting request through to the room or resource calendar which is tentatively accepted until approved by a member of the ‘Delegate’ group.

29. Room or resource calendars can also have a capacity limit set. This will prevent a meeting being booked with more attendees than the room can accommodate (e.g. the calendar for a room that can only seat 10 attendees will not accept a meeting with 20 attendees).

Email distribution/mailing lists

30. Email distribution lists are designed to provide a simple method of communication to large groups of contacts. Lists can be used for one-way distribution of information or for group email-based discussion.
31. The email addresses of members of ANU email distribution/mailing lists must not be published.
32. Each list must have a list owner or manager. List owners are responsible for the administrative management of the list, including moderation.