ECU Automatic E-mail Purge Policy

Introduction

Purpose of Policy

To provide the standard for automatic removal of older mail items in the Enterprise e-mail system. Automatic purging will maintain the client databases, limit disk space usage, and reduce possible data corruption.

Policy

This policy applies to e-mails maintained in the enterprise e-mail system. The information provided below specifies the number of days before the automatic purging occurs for faculty and staff e-mail accounts and departmental e-mail accounts. Clients who wish to avoid the automatic purging as defined by this policy, must take action prior to the automatic archiving of faculty and staff e-mail messages or automatic deletion of departmental e-mail messages.

The automatic removal schedule outlined in this policy does not override a department's requirement for e-mail retention. Every department using e-mail should retain or destroy e-mail by following the provisions of either their own department-specific records retention and disposition schedule or the general schedule for East Carolina University records. For guidance on university e-mail retention limits, please refer to the University Records Retention and Disposition Schedule.

Database Purges

Faculty and Staff 

Mailbox Items

• E-mail for faculty and staff are automatically archived after sixty days
• Faculty and staff may delete e-mail or move e-mail to their workstation prior to the sixty days to avoid the automatic archiving feature
• All faculty and staff e-mail not deleted or moved to the client's workstation are automatically archived after the sixty day period and maintained in the Archive vault for seven years.
• Shortcuts to access archived e-mail are deleted from the user's mailbox after six years
  
• Archived e-mail messages are deleted from the Archive vault after seven years
  

Deleted Items

• Items marked for deletion are placed in the DELETED ITEMS folder for seven days and then moved to a user-recoverable retention area for 14 days prior to permanent deletion
  

Departmental Accounts

Inbox

• Messages in departmental e-mail accounts older than 180 days will be automatically deleted. These items are placed in the DELETED ITEMS folder for up to seven days
• Clients have the option to delete mail or move to their workstation prior to the automatic deletion
• Departmental accounts are NOT automatically archived after sixty days.

Deleted Items

• Messages marked for deletion are placed in the Deleted Items folder for seven (7) days and then moved to a user-recoverable retention area for 14 days before permanent deletion
  
• To maintain e-mail past the date limitations, establish automatic archiving to a specific directory on your workstation before the dates indicated above. Please reference HELP in the particular client for assistance.

E-mail Purge Table

User Classification	Scope	Automatic Archive	Shortcut Retention to Archived E-mail*	Retention in Archive**	Other Action
Faculty & staff	Mailbox e-mail	After 60 days	6 years	7 years	N/A
Faculty & staff	Deleted Items folder	N/A	N/A	N/A	Marked for deletion after seven (7) days then moved to user-recoverable retention area for 14 days before permanent deletion
Department accounts	Mailbox e-mail	N/A unless specifically requested by department	N/A if not automatically archived, 6 years if archived	N/A if not automatically archived, 7 years if archived	If not archived, items in the Inbox and Sent folders are moved to Deleted Items folder after 180 days
Department accounts	Deleted Items folder	N/A	N/A	N/A	Marked for deletion after seven (7) days then moved to user-recoverable retention area for 14 days before permanent deletion

*Period of time the shortcut to archived e-mail stays in the user's mailbox. The actual e-mail resides in the e-mail vault not in the user's mailbox. Once the shortcut is deleted, the e-mail message is still accessible via the Web retrieval tool for a period as defined in the Retention in Archive.

**Period of time the archived e-mail message is accessible in the e-mail vault