The current Single E-Mail for Students and Employees policy has been in place for 16 years. There have been significant changes in email services since this policy first came into effect including: 

• Cost of email licensing
• Cyber security landscape and risks associated with email
• Information management legislation and compliance requirements
• Student and employee access to other free email services (e.g., Gmail, Hotmail, etc.)
• Student and employee usage of email (i.e., Memorial email is no longer their first address)

In April 2024, Canadian University Council of Chief Information Officers (CUCCIO) published a report on the status of email for life at Canadian universities to inform universities when reviewing email for life practices. While a slight majority (51%) of CUCCIO member universities continue to support email for life in some form, the report highlighted that a significant majority (75%) are now reviewing email for life offerings going forward.

Email for life is operationally complex and directly associated with cyber security, information management, privacy, compliance and reputational risks.  Trends across the country are showing a decline in email for life usage and universities, including Memorial, are experiencing increased costs due to new licensing and storage models from Google and Microsoft.

In October 2024, the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) issued a directive to Memorial University recommending the university create a clear and enforceable policy requiring all employees and officials to use a Memorial University email account, not a personal email account, for university business.

Key notes about the draft Information Management policy and Official Email Account for Students policies:

• Employee email policy requirements are now included in the Information Management
• Student email policy requirements are included in the draft titled Official Email Account for Students policy (existing title is Single Email for Employees and Students).
• The reasons for separating student and employee email policies include, but are not limited to, student email is provided for a different purpose than employee email, the retention requirements are different, and governing legislation for employee email does not apply to student email.
• The most substantial change in the draft updates is eliminating email for life for students and staff. Faculty can elect to continue to access their official Memorial email account upon departure. In addition, Memorial will create retention schedules for inactive mailboxes.

Information Management Policy Amendments Annotated
Information Management Policy Clean Copy
Official Email Account for Students