This policy is designed to formalize the use of electronic mail for official University of Massachusetts Amherst communications.

The University of Massachusetts Amherst has established email as a means of sending official information to students enrolled in credit courses. To support this objective, the University has provided an email account to all University of Massachusetts Amherst students.

• The University will send official communications only to email addresses distributed by OIT (also known as UMail addresses). This applies to all undergraduate and graduate students.
• The University has the right to expect that such communications will be received and read in a timely fashion.
• A student may have email redirected from their official UMass address (@student.umass.edu for undergraduates) to another email address at his or her own risk. The University will not be responsible for the handling of email by outside vendors or by departmental servers.
• Students are expected to check their University email on a frequent and consistent basis to ensure that they are staying current with all official communications.
• As of November 21, 2005, University employees can use their departmental email address for official communications. Departmental email addresses are created and maintained by UMass departments other than OIT (e.g., Computer Science), one of the Five Colleges, another UMass campus, or the President's Office.

• The Chief Information Officer has overall responsibility for implementation and enforcement of this policy.
• The Office of Information Technologies (OIT) is responsible for distributing and maintaining official University of Massachusetts Amherst email addresses.
• Students are responsible for activating their OIT Account and email service, and accessing their email on a regular basis. If a student does not activate their OIT Account, they will be unable to enroll in and/or add/swap courses.
• The content of official communications is the responsibility of the originating department.
• Individuals using electronic mail are expected to adhere to the OIT Acceptable Use Policy .