The State of Connecticut has created two e-mail policies that affect the University of Connecticut community. These policies are the "Electronic Mail Acceptable Use Policy" and the "Electronic & Voice Mail Management and Retention Guide." Both of the policies can be found on the State web site as defined below.

The Acceptable Use Policy is located at www.state.ct.us/cmac/policies/emailcon.htm, while the Retention Policy is located at www.state.ct.us/cmac/kb/retention.htm. You can also navigate to these from the Connecticut Management Advisory Committee page which is www.state.ct.us/cmac by selecting "official state policies." The Acceptable Use Policy is substantially the same as the University's policy, which makes it plain that University and State resources are to be used only for University and/or State business.

The Retention Policy, however, is new and requires your attention. This document indicates that e-mail that is sent as part of employees’ daily work is "NOT private." Therefore, the e-mail is a discoverable communications and may be subject to Freedom of Information (FOI) disclosure. Associated with this are three categories for retention: Transitory, Less Than Permanent, and Permanent or Permanent/Archival. Each is defined in the policy. I believe retention guidelines have been provided through the Dodd Research Center. It is the responsibility of the individuals sending and receiving the email to make determinations about retention. I suggest questions about retention be directed to Betsy Pittman (486-4507 or Betsy.Pittman@uconn.edu) who is responsible for this activity for the University.

There is a pilot electronic archival process in test at this time. The goal is to provide an easy method to transfer e-mail that falls into either of the "Permanent" categories. It is acceptable to meet the retention guidelines by making paper copies of email, then storing these in accordance with retention guidelines.