Policy 75

University of Wisconsin-Parkside
Mass Email to Students
Policy #75

 

75.01 Purpose

The purpose of this policy is to provide guidance to the campus community as the University transitions from paper to electronic communications as the primary communication method for events of interest to the university community. The three types of mass emails covered by this policy are broadcast mass emails, targeted mass emails, and emails generated as a result of a business transaction with the University directed to students or alumni. Any mailing that is distributed via user-subscribed mailing lists is exempt from this policy. Mailings between faculty and their students and advisees are also exempt from this policy.

The goals of this policy are:

• To educate the campus community in the proper use of large volume emails
• To provide a methodology for the campus community to target mailings as narrowly as possible, thus limiting the exposure of the students to mailings that are not important to their university role
• Provide as much emailing flexibility to the campus community while managing the availability and resources of the campus email system

75.02 Requirements of Email Messages

To be in conformance with this policy, the following minimum requirements must be met:

• Any attachments should be referenced by a link or other location reference in the message body instead
• The message must clearly indicate an on-campus email address that can accept replies
• The message must not contain any personal and/or confidential data from student or employee records
• The user should be directed to a secure site where their identity can be verified before personal and/or confidential information is displayed

75.03 Approval

Prior to being sent out the message needs to be approved by one or more of the following administrators as determined by the intended audience(s) of the message:

• Chancellor/Director of Strategic Communications
  • Authority to approve all communication
• Dean of Students
  • All mailings to students
  • Mailings to selected students about activities or student organizations
• Enrollment Services
  • Mailings to students about enrollment management matters
  • Transaction-generated mailings
• Chief Information Officer
  • Mailings to students regarding technology changes or alerts
• Chief of Police
  • Mailings to students about police and safety related matters

It is permitted for the administrators above to provide pre-approval for more than one mailing on the same subject in advance. Such approvals should acknowledge and provide approval for the subject, number of mailings to occur, and the approximate schedule for the mailings.

75.04 Requirements for Senders

• Senders are responsible for developing the message content and submitting the request to the approver
• Senders should allow a minimum of three business days for mailings to be approved and processed
• Senders should allow a minimum of seven business days for targeted mailings to be approved and processed

75.05 Definitions

Broadcast mass email
This is an email message with identical content sent to one or more broad campus constituent group.

Targeted Mass Email
This is an email message with identical content sent to one or more targeted group. Such groups can be targeted by any attribute that is selectable from the campus enterprise directory or other data warehouse.

Some examples of targeted groups:

• all Biology Majors
• all seniors who have applied for graduation

Email generated as a result of a transaction with the University
These emails are notifications of important information or status changes in the student or employee administration systems. Examples of such emails:

• Notification of Financial Aid Awards
• Notification of account balance change

75.06 Policy Review

The Chief Information Officer (CIO) will coordinate an annual review of the policy. Members of the campus community can forward to the CIO suggested changes for review by February 1. Recommendations for changes will be provided by the CIO to the Chancellor's Cabinet for approval no later than March 1st.

 

*Revised: Spring 2015, Fall 2022