NCSU E-mail

NC State has G-Suite for Education. Students now have access to Gmail, Google Calendar, Drive (formerly Docs), and Sites. OIT’s G Suite site is dedicated to usage and training on Google apps.

E-mail Addresses

The official email address for University communication is: unityid@ncsu.edu. All students use Gmail servers. All official communication from the University to students will be transmitted via email.

To ensure that you receive all University communication, check My Pack Portal in the Personal Information > Contact Information> Email boxes on the For Students front page, or under the Self Service > Campus Personal Information > E-mail Addresses tabs. Your default address should be unityid@ncsu.edu and cannot be changed, but you may set up additional addresses as backups.

E-mail Fields

Regardless of the email client you use, email messages may require some (but not all) fields to be completed in order to be delivered.

Recommended Fields (Required for all E115 correspondence):

To: – Enter mail address of the person(s) to whom you are sending the message. Enter as many addresses as you like, usually separated by commas. You may be able to just use CC or BCC fields instead of filling out the To field, but your email should always go to somebody.

Subject: – Enter a relevant heading that accurately describes the message contents.

Optional Fields:

CC: – Carbon Copy. To send others a copy of the mail, enter their email addresses here.

BCC: – Blind Carbon Copy. To send others a copy of the mail without the recipients in the To: or Cc: fields knowing about it, enter their email addresses here.

Gmail Settings

Labels

Labels allow you to sort and organize similar emails. For example, by using labels and filters, you can have Gmail automatically sort emails for a particular course into one location, instead of having to search through your inbox.

Setting up a label in Gmail:

  1. In the upper right hand corner, click on the gear, then select “Settings” from the drop down menu
  2. Click on the “Labels” tab
  3. Click on “Create a new label”
  4. Input the course name, club name, etc. for the label that you want to create. If you would like to create a sub-label, then select the checkbox and the label that this label will be under.
  5. Click “Create”

Filtering

To move emails out of your inbox automatically into labels, you can create a filter that separates emails by categories such as sender, receiver, subject, keyword, etc.

  1. In the upper right hand corner, click on the gear, then select “Settings” from the drop down menu
  2. Click on the “Filters” tab
  3. Click on “Create a new filter”
  4. Input the desired parameters
  5. Click “Create a filter with this search”
  6. Select the desired options
    • Note: “Skip the inbox” immediately archives the email, and “Apply the label:” categorizes the email under the selected email.
  7. Click “Create Filter”

Appropriate Use

Your campus preferred email address will be set by the University and cannot be changed. It is recommended that you keep any other email accounts separated for personal use. For example, your NC State email will be used only for University communications and email from professors, and your personal account will be used for subscribing to forums, online newsletters, Facebook, etc.

We also encourage the use of “Professor” when emailing NCSU faculty (unless you know their preferred method of address) so as not to assume anyone’s gender, marital status, or level of education.

Using your NC State email for academic purposes only will help minimize the amount of spam sent to your Unity account and will ensure that important academic messages are not lost in an overcrowded inbox. Your professors will be given this email address as part of your enrollment in their course, and fellow students should use it to communicate with you regarding academics. Also, professionals and prospective employers will be more likely to contact you at unityid@ncsu.edu than at an address like mydarling@gmail.com.

How to Write Good Emails for Classes

When emailing an instructor or grader, the subject should have the course number, section number, and a brief description of the email contents. For a student asking about Independent Assignment 5, the subject could look like E 115 – Group 12, Independent Assignment 5 Problem 2.

Use meaningful, specific subject headers and email body

  1. When you write us an email, letting us know the specific issue is helpful. You can include in your subject headers something called “object – deviation”. The “object” part specifies what thing is having a problem, and the “deviation” part describes the problem! For example:
    1. NFS Access – Permission Denied
    2. Panopto Video Guided Lab 2 – Cannot access
  2. Describe the environment in which your issue occurs (machine, OS, application). It helps to know if you’re on a Mac or Windows or Linux machine, or trying to use the VCL or a lab computer.

Confidential Mode

The Office of General Counsel and OIT Security and Compliance have approved
the use of Gmail’s new Confidential Mode in NC State’s Google domain.
Confidential Mode in Gmail allows users to:

– Set an expiration date for a message.

– Require an access code to view a message.

– Disable options for email recipients to forward, copy, print, and
download the message’s content.

In addition:

– Email sent in Confidential Mode is archived for e-discovery.

– Email sent in Confidential Mode is not approved for ultra-sensitive or
purple data.

For additional information, including how to use, see the OIT News article
on Gmail Confidential Mode.

Questions should be directed to the NC State Help Desk (help@ncsu.edu, 919.515.4357).

It is also good to know about the limitations of “confidential mode,” and what it does and does not provide.

Phishing

Phishing

Falsely claiming to be a legitimate company to scam the consumer is called Phishing.

If you receive an email that does not look legitimate, do not respond or visit the link and do not provide your personal information to unknown sources. Please note that the university will NEVER ask you to send personal information through email.  

Learn more about phishing here.