Policy Number 6.500
Supersedes Policy Dated:  March 5, 2001
Effective Date: September 24, 2004
Review Date: July 17, 2008

Title of Policy:  ECU Email Purge Policy

Purpose of Policy:  To establish guidelines for automatic removal of older mail items in the Inbox, Sent Items,  and Deleted Items folders. Automatic purging will maintain the client databases, limit disk space usage, and reduce possible corruption.

Policy:  The information provided below specifies the number of days before the automatic purging. The client can choose to save or archive their information to a specific directory on their personal workstation if needed.

Approved:
IRCC and ISSC

Database Purges:

Inbox (Departmental and Student accounts only) - 180 days
The Inbox is the primary folder for all incoming mail items. Items that are older than 180 days will automatically be deleted. These items will be placed in the DELETED ITEMS folder for up to seven days.

Sent Items(Departmental and Student accounts only) - 180 days The Sent Items is the folder contains all outgoing mail items. Items that are older than 180 days will automatically be deleted. These items will be placed in the DELETED ITEMS folder for up to seven days.

Deleted Items (Departmental, Student and Faculty/Account accounts) - 7 days The items that are marked for deletion are placed in the DELETED ITEMS folder for seven days. Afterward, the items will be automatically removed. These items cannot be restored easily; therefore it is critical to mark only the items that need deleting.

In order to maintain mail past the date limitations, establish automatic archiving to a specific directory on your personal computer or within another folder in your mailbox before the dates indicated above. Please reference HELP in the particular client for assistance.

NOTE: Faculty/Staff accounts are not subject to the INBOX and SENT ITEMS guidelines above. All Faculty/Staff email is now archived to tiered storage for a standard period of three years at which time items greater than 3 years old will be automatically deleted. An exception is email that is stored in the “7YR RETENTION” folder which is automatically purged after 7 years.

An additional exception is made for email accounts identified by the University Archivist. All email residing in these accounts are archived and automatically purged after 7 years.