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University Committee on Information Systems & Technology (UCIST)

 

Official Student Email Address

Approved by Executive Council, 2003-04-16

Introduction and Scope

Email is an important tool for both academic and administrative communications at the University of Waterloo. This statement applies to all correspondence conducted via email that would be considered an official communication between the institution and its student body. For these purposes, an official communication may refer to the following classes of correspondence and notifications:

  • Mass General Notifications (e.g., information sessions, graduation notices)
  • Mass Individual Mailings (e.g., class information, library notices, coop interviews)
  • Individual Correspondence (e.g., instructor correspondence, human resources information)

This document does not attempt to outline any specific technical details of the service to be provided to students. It is assumed to be in keeping with general industry standards as adopted by the institution.

General Information and Guidelines

  1. The University provides an email address and account to all students for the receipt of official communications and their participation in an academic program at UW.
  2. The University uses an email address like userid@uwaterloo.ca in official correspondence with students.
  3. An appropriate forwarding capability is provided so that students may, if they so choose, redirect mail to an alternate account.
  4. Students are responsible for monitoring the contents and condition of the mailbox to which they have forwarded their UW email.
  5. Students may verify or change the account to which their UW email is sent through the WatIAM facilities at https://watiam.uwaterloo.ca:8181/idm/user/ .
  6. Students should configure their email client programs to include their preferred given name and surname.
  7. Students should be aware that mail sent using an off-campus email address may be rejected by the recipient as it does not easily identify who they are.  Mail sent from an off-campus email service using a uWaterloo email address may at times be rejected as well, due to spam filters. Moreover, some instructors may insist that email sent to them come from an on-campus email service. So it is safest to always use an on-campus email service.
  8. Students should use informative subject lines including course numbers where relevant.

Maintained by Meltem Y. Kurtman
Last updated June 20, 2011

UCIST | University of Waterloo | Waterloo, Ontario Canada | N2L 3G1 | 519.888.4567 | www.uwaterloo.ca