Communication

Student E-mail Accounts
Prior to matriculation, accepted applicants are required to establish a University of Washington netID account and email address. The School of Medicine uses students’ University of Washington e-mail addresses as the primary communication mechanism for all communication related to the medicals school program and its activities. Medical students are considered part of the UW Medicine workforce and may not auto-forward UW email away from UW Medicine-approved email servers or store confidential data on these servers due to the risk of exposing HIPAA-protected data. Students are required to use UW Exchange to access their email account. The UW Medicine Compliance Office audits for this auto-forward feature and contacts individuals who violate the policy. Additional information is available about UW Email for Medical Students. 

The following must be notified/updated when a student changes their e-mail address or netID: 

• School of Medicine academic affairs office (A-300)
  • Contact the School of Medicine registrar’s office via e-mail at somreg@uw.edu to request an e-mail address update. Students must provide their full name and student ID number when submitting the request. 
• Upper campus registrar’s office (and financial aid)
  • Log into my.uw.edu and click the “Change Student Address” link 

School of Medicine Listservs
There are administrative and auxiliary listservs for each year in the curriculum and for each Foundations Phase campus. Students are subscribed to the appropriate listservs based on their academic year and site. The administrative listserv is intended for official notices from Academic Affairs. Students may not unsubscribe from the administrative listserv. The auxiliary listserv is used for non-academic activities, such as housing notices, books for sale, etc. Students are subscribed automatically to the appropriate auxiliary listserv at the beginning of each academic year and may unsubscribe from the list at any time. 

Email and Listserv Etiquette and Protocol
Students are expected to maintain professionalism in all their communications. While University of Washington employees are restricted from using their work email accounts for partisan political purposes, in general, students do not fall under the same restrictions. However, students who are employed by the University could be considered employees under certain circumstances and consequently should exercise caution. 

The student body, faculty, and staff represent a broad spectrum of beliefs and opinions. Students are expected to exercise thoughtfulness, caution and prudence to ensure that their email messages are clear and will not be misinterpreted by other members on the list. Humor is especially vulnerable to misunderstanding in this setting. Students should respond individually to the person initiating an email message rather than replying to all who received the message (i.e. do not respond to email using the “reply all” function). Email replies that include the entire class create an excessive number of emails and may result in a misuse of student and faculty time. 

Every Thursday afternoon all UWSOM students receive the Weekly Student Newsletter by email. It contains important news, information, opportunities and deadlines for the upcoming week/s from Career Advising, Financial Aid, Student Affairs and other departments. In the newsletter there are links that will take you to information relevant to each class: MS1s – MS4s. Please take a moment to read the newsletter to avoid missing important information.

You can find the current issue and back issues of the Student Newsletter here.

If you have suggestions for the Student Newsletter, please email uwsomcom@uw.edu.

Release of Student Directory Information
Student directory information is maintained with both the School of Medicine registrar’s office and the University of Washington registrar’s office. These databases are independent of one another. Students are required to fill out a Directory Information Release form upon matriculation in the first year. To change authorization for the release of directory information, students must update the following: 

• School of Medicine academic affairs office (A-300)
  • Contact the School of Medicine registrar’s office via e-mail at somreg@uw.edu for a Directory Information Release form. Return the form to their office with an original signature. 
• University of Washington registrar’s office (upper campus)
  • Log on to my.uw.edu. Under directory information, select or de-select “restrict access.”