Purpose

The university provides a variety of communication facilities to the university community and the general public. The facilities are used for a variety of purposes including official university business as well as communications of a purely personal nature. When university communication facilities are used for personal communications, care must be exercised to avoid any appearance, implication or impression that the item is an official communication of the university.

As an organization described in Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, EMU is barred from engaging in or supporting any partisan political activity. Further, as a charitable organization and an organization receiving Federal grants, restrictions apply to EMU’s activities of a “lobbying” nature.

Policy Statement

Use of any EMU facilities for partisan political purposes, for comments about any candidate for public office or any positions taken by such candidates or for lobbying activities are strictly prohibited unless expressly approved by the president of the university.

The following statements provide additional guidance and precautions to be followed when using university communication facilities for communications that go outside of the university.

Letterhead, Logo and Employee Titles

Letterhead and the EMU logo are to be used exclusively for official university purposes. They should not be used or attached in any way to communications of a personal nature. Likewise, employee titles are to be used only for official university purposes.

FAX Machines

University FAX machines that are used to send any communications of a personal nature must be modified to remove the EMU identifier that normally appears on material sent. If that identifier cannot be removed, a disclaimer must be included on each page of the material sent indicating that it is not an EMU communication.

Email

The university permits authorized persons to use EMU email and other campus computer network facilities for a variety of official and personal purposes. See Information Systems: Acceptable Use Policy For Campus Computers & Networks in the appendices. When using email facilities for personal communications, care should be exercised to remove all official identifiers such as a “signature” with an official EMU title or department.

Approved by President’s Cabinet, May 16, 2000