Information Security Standard Practices
Acceptable Use Agreement — Mailing List Purpose and Usage Statement
1.0 Overview
Mt. San Antonio College operates an automated mailing list service, or LISTSERV, for the benefit of the College and community. Electronic mailing lists are used by students, faculty, staff and others to exchange information or to participate in collaborative efforts. It is important that list owners and sponsors understand the appropriate uses for mailing lists and the responsibilities that accompany list ownership.
2.0 Purpose
The purpose of this document is to outline the acceptable uses of College-maintained electronic mailing lists and the responsibilities of list owners and sponsors.
3.0 Responsible Use
Each list must conform to the College's Acceptable Use Rules, Procedures and Regulations document which states, in part: "The College's computing, communications and information resources are provided for the support of its educational and service goals and the use of such resources for any other purpose is prohibited."
4.0 Impermissible Use
A list must not be used to promote commercial products, services, or political organizations which are not officially associated with the College or for purposes which violate College policies, local ordinances, or state or federal laws.
5.0 List Ownership
Each list must have at least one owner who is a faculty or staff member at the College, and who will be designated the primary owner of the list. The primary owner may authorize other individuals, including students and/or individuals who are not officially associated with the College, to act as owners, editors, or moderators of the list. The primary owner is responsible for day-to-day monitoring and operation of the list or for delegating these functions to a co-owner. These functions include, but are not limited to:
- Maintaining the list configuration
- Adding and deleting subscribers
- Serving as the initial point of contact for subscribers with questions or problems
- Dealing with social problems which may arise on the list
List owners, editors, and moderators, should be familiar with LISTSERV options and commands.
6.0 Responsibility to Subscribers
A list owner must not add a subscriber to a list without the subscriber's prior knowledge and consent, and must comply immediately with a request from a subscriber to be removed from a list, except in cases where the list is used for official College business. Examples of "official" lists include:
- Class lists
- College or departmental lists of faculty, staff, or students
Subscribers may be added to an official list without their knowledge or consent, and requests to be removed from an official list need not be honored by the list owner.
7.0 Subscription Confirmation
A list which allows open subscriptions must use subscription confirmation to prevent the acceptance of forged subscription requests. A list must not be configured to accept unconfirmed open subscriptions.
8.0 List Retention
A class list and its archives will be removed after the end of the term for which the list was created. The list owner(s) will be notified at least one week prior to deletion. An inactive list and its archives will be retained for 12 months after the date of last activity, as indicated by the date of the most recent message in the list archives. The list owner(s) will be notified at least one week prior to deletion due to inactivity. A list and its archives may be deleted if the list is "orphaned", i.e., there are no valid owner addresses on the list. When an orphaned list is found, the list will be locked and placed on hold to prevent its use, and the list service administrator will attempt to identify and notify the College entity with which the list is associated, so that a new owner can be found. If a new owner cannot be found, the list and its archives will be deleted.
9.0 Archive Retention
An active list may have a maximum of 12 months of archives online on the list server. It is the responsibility of the list owner to ensure that older archives are removed from the server in a timely manner. Expired archives not removed by the list owner will be removed by the list service administrator without prior notice. Instructions for managing list archives may be found in the LISTSERV List Owner's Manual available at http://lists.mtsac.edu.
10.0 Additional Restrictions
The list service administrator may impose restrictions on the operation of a list to ensure that the use of the list does not adversely affect other lists or services.
11.0 Compliance Review
The list service administrator will periodically review all lists to ensure compliance with these policies. If a list is found to be out of compliance, the list service administrator may take reasonable steps to enforce compliance.
