Email Sweeps
Automated Email Removal Sweeps
Missouri S&T’s email policy is to retain messages only as long as necessary. Starting June 30, 2022, UM System IT will conduct daily sweeps of the Inbox and Sent Items folders of all active university mailboxes for emails older than five years.
Daily Removal of Emails 5 Years or Older
Emails in your Outlook Inbox and Sent Item folders that are dated from June 30, 2017, or older will be automatically moved to the Deleted folder. Once an email has been swept to the Deleted folder, there is a 30-day window to recover it.
Default Outlook folders, including subfolders you've created within the Inbox or Sent Items folders, will not be swept.
The Importance of Email Sweeps
This email clean-up effort is outlined in Email Management Policy 12006 and is essential to ensuring that any sensitive and important data we have in our email remains secure.
Properly managing your email ensures the following:
- You comply with UM System's Records Retention Policy and retain the appropriate messages
- You don't lose messages that are important to your job performance
- You remove messages that constitute ROT (redundant, outdated, trivial information)
If you are unsure if an email qualifies as a record, refer to the What is a Record?, review the Records Retention Authorizations or contact umrecordsmanagement@umsystem.edu.
Deciding What to Retain
Store in a Subfolder
- Policy and procedures
- Shows action or job performance
- Guidance or project workflow
- You're not sure
Delete
- Junk mail
- Appointment confirmation
- Personal messages