Dear Colleagues,
As promised, I am attaching two model texts that you can use for out-of-office replies or to let partners know about your alternate email address and the reason why they need to begin using it immediately.
During the Question and Answer sessions we held yesterday, I received several questions about whether forwarding your uleth address to an alternate email would mean that you would continue to receive emails sent to your uleth address during the lockout.
Since the Board has not communicated with us about its intentions, we cannot know for certain. But our assumption is that forwarding will be disabled after your access is cut off. This means that you will likely no longer receive emails sent to your uleth address after the lockout begins. Your out of office will also probably stop and emails sent to your uleth address may not be stored until access is restored.
You therefore should assume that any email sent to your uleth account after the lockout begins will be lost irrecoverably.
The reason we recommend forwarding your uleth email to your alternate account immediately is to ensure as smooth as possible a transition of your professional correspondence from your uleth account to your alternate email between now and the commencement of any lockout. The purpose is to ensure all your current correspondence ends up in the right account.
After forwarding is set up, you should begin to use your alternate email exclusively to send messages and replies as this will ensure that anybody who replies to your emails will start using your new address automatically.
We also strongly recommend that you consider forwarding or downloading all emails that you think you might need during job action. Once you can no longer sign in to your account, you will no longer be able to access any emails stored in your uleth account.
Thanks very much for all your efforts. Together we can change things at this university. This most recent action by the administration shows why it is important that we do.
-dan
Out of office text
Note: This will stop working when the lockout begins. It is intended to alert correspondents to the problem in the meantime.
Thank you very much for your email.
The Board of Governors of the University of Lethbridge and my Faculty Association are currently at an impasse in labour negotiations.
The Administration recently has informed us that they intend to lock faculty out of their university email and other online services in the event of job action.
To ensure continuity, please begin using the following alternate email for all correspondence: <<email address>>
Note that the Faculty Association has indicated that it will not ask members to strike against research and other non-service or teaching duties in the event of a strike or lockout. This is to avoid inflicting long-term damage on the institution and to ensure faculty are able to fulfil their research, ethical, and health and safety obligations.
It also means that I will be able to continue with most correspondence even in the event of Job Action without crossing our (virtual) picket lines.
If you would like to register a concern about the University’s decision to disrupt our professional communication, you can contact the president, Dr. Michael Mahon, at president@uleth.ca .
I apologise for any inconvenience.
Contact letter for joint projects etc.
Note: This is intended for people, projects, and agencies with whom you expect to work during the lockout.
We recommend sending this from your uleth account with both your alternate address and the recipient’s in the to: line. This will ensure that a reply-all will go to your alternate account automatically.
Dear <<Name>>,
The Board of Governors of the University of Lethbridge and my Faculty Association are currently at an impasse in labour negotiations.
The Administration recently has informed us that they intend to lock faculty out of their university email and other online services in the event of job action.
For this reason, I ask that you begin using my alternate email address <<email address>> immediately for all further communication on our projects.
Note that the Faculty Association has indicated that it will not ask members to strike against research and other non-service or teaching duties in the event of a strike or lockout. This is to avoid inflicting long-term damage on the institution and to ensure faculty are able to fulfil their research, ethical, and health and safety obligations.
It also means that I will be able to continue in our joint endeavours without crossing our (virtual) picket lines.
If you would like to register a concern about the University’s decision to disrupt our work together in this fashion, you can contact the president, Dr. Michael Mahon, at president@uleth.ca.
I apologise for any inconvenience.
<<name and signature>>
