The purpose of this document is to establish rules for the use of the Western Michigan University email address.
This policy has been developed to encourage the use of official WMU email addresses for conducting all official business of the University. The use of other email accounts (e.g., Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, Charter, SBC, etc.) to conduct official business is prohibited. This policy applies to all work-related email engaged in by all University employees, faculty, and staff. All such email communications must use the University's email system.
All email sent from an administrative or academic office is considered to be an official notice and must contain a valid "to", "from", and "reply-to", and identify the person or process that initiated the message. Since some official communications may be time-sensitive, students, faculty and staff are responsible for reading their email on a frequent and regular basis.
WMU email address is the official email address assigned at the time one's Bronco NetID is created.
Bronco NetID is a unique account that is automatically assigned when a student is admitted, or a faculty or staff member is hired. It remains active as long as enrollment, employment, or official University affiliation continues.
Western Michigan University uses email to communicate official University information of all kinds to students, faculty, and staff.
If non-wmich.ed email addresses are used, and email is sent to ISP addresses, such as AOL, gmail, or hotmail, etc., and the person receiving the message from wmich.edu marks the message as spam, then a percentage of email sent to others with that ISP's address, from WMU is also blocked for a period of days. The percentage increase as the number of people marking the message as spam increases. This means that large numbers of WMU students or prospective students, would not receive official communications from WMU. It is therefore critical that all official email to WMU students, prospective students, faculty, or staff be sent to the official wmich.edu email address and from an official wmich.edu address.
Individuals who conduct official business for Western Michigan University shall abide by the rules of this policy. Any person found to be in violation of this policy, will be subject to appropriate disciplinary action as defined by current University policy.