Text Message Information
Data Privacy
SUNY Empire is a good steward of information, respecting the privacy of our prospective, current, and graduated students as well as employees. Information security policies can be found at www.esc.edu/policies. The privacy of all students is protected by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA). The use of the college’s SMS/texting services requires the college to collect and share directory information as defined by the college’s policy “Adherence to Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974”. For additional information on FERPA, and to prevent disclosure of any directory information visit the college’s FERPA information webpage
More information about data security, including information for prospective students and employees, can be found in the college’s policy for “Enterprise Data Classification”, and the “General Data Protection and Regulations Privacy Policy”.
To facilitate text messaging services, SUNY Empire contracts with a third party vendor. Directory Information, as defined by the college's FERPA policy, is shared with the vendor. SUNY Empire State college will never send, or share, FERPA protected information or student records for the purposes of SMS/texting. SMS/text messages are not student records and are not retained in accordance with the college’s Record Retention Policy.
Students are discouraged from texting private or sensitive information to SUNY Empire. Texting SUNY Empire may result in an unintended sharing of personal data. As such, if a student engages in a text conversation with SUNY Empire, the student may be asked to move to another form of communication such as email or the telephone. SMS/text messages are sent using a proxy number.
Terms and Conditions
Texting "HELP" to any of the texts received from SUNY Empire will return instructions on how to get assistance. Additional instructions for assistance follow.
Help and assistance for students and employees using text messaging is provided through the IT Service desk. The service desk can be reached by phone at 888-Help-009 (888-435-7009), by email service-desk@esc.edu or by chat esc.edu/ITChat.
Help and assistance for students regarding information found in a text can be provided by 1 Stop or by calling 800-847-3000.
Help and assistance for applicants and prospective students signing up for or using text can be provided by emailing enroll@esc.edu.
Accepted students may Opt in to different types of texts, depending on the categories of texts they are interested in. Categories available to students, as well as instructions on how to opt in, are found on the college's internal webpage for text message options.
Applicants and prospective students can Opt in into text messaging from the "Create an Account" and "Inquiry" forms.
All categories of text from SUNY Empire are recurring. Frequency depends on the type of text, activity during the term, and for emergency texts, the weather. Information regarding frequency is found on the registration page and text confirmation for the category.
Opting out of all texts offered by SUNY Empire can be done by texting "STOP" from the specific text category you would like to deregister from. More information for enrolled students, including specific phone numbers for each categories, can be found on the internal webpage for text messages.
Opting out of SUNY Alert texts that inform students and employees about emergencies and/or system notifications can also be done through Banner Self Service, by choosing "no".
When opting out of text messages, you agree to one additional confirmation message stating that you've opted out, after which you will no longer receive text messages from that category unless you opt in again.
For all text categories message and data rates may apply.
Policy
For more information about using text messaging at SUNY Empire, you can access Use of Text Messaging Services on the college's policy webpage.