Luther Seminary Email Account Forwarding and Bounceback Policy

I. Overview/Purpose

This policy clarifies the availability, use, and responsibility for email accounting forwarding tools and the availability of email bouncebacks for departing faculty and staff.

II. Scope

This policy applies to all faculty, staff, student, and “resource” accounts.

III. Definitions

LutherNet Account - This account allows faculty, staff, and students to access Luther technology resources.  Each LutherNet account includes a Luther e-mail address.

Resource Accounts - These are e-mail only or calendar only accounts.

Bounceback – An automated reply sent to any incoming message to a specific account.

IV. Eligibility

All faculty, staff, and students may forward their email to an external email account.  Resource accounts may not be forwarded to an external address.

Faculty and staff who leave employment, except Faculty Emeriti, will have any forwarding addresses removed along with their account in accordance with the “Luther Seminary Faculty and Staff Account Deletion Policy.”

Departing faculty and staff, or their respective department head, may request an automated bounceback for their account.  Bouncebacks will be retained for up to six months.  All bouncebacks are approved by Human Resources and may be modified to reflect Seminary business needs.

V. Process

Faculty, staff, and students are responsible for forwarding their own email accounts through the forwarding tools available either through Gmail or their email client.

Email bouncebacks must be requested through the Human Resources department.  The requester must provide the text of the bounceback. All bouncebacks are approved by Human Resources and may be modified to reflect Seminary business needs.

VI. Limitations

The Information Technology department will not forward email accounts of departed faculty or staff to either other internal email addresses or external email accounts.

VII. Responsibility

Faculty, staff, and students who have forwarded their email to an external account are responsible for maintaining their forwarding address and ensuring that it remains a functioning email address.

Luther Seminary is not responsible for ensuring that forwarded mail reaches the destination account nor is it responsible for retaining either the original message or a record of the forwarded message.

Email forwarding that negatively impacts network security or system performance will be disabled and the account holder notified.

Official correspondence from the Seminary is sent to faculty, staff, and students.  Anyone choosing to forward their account is still responsible for correspondence sent to their account.

Revision History