SGU Bulk E-mail Policy

Definition of Bulk E-mail:

One e-mail message sent to more than 10 people

Policy:

Bulk e-mail notices should be no larger than 10KB and should not contain attachments. Ideally, messages should include the information that would have been in an attachment as part of the actual e-mail text body or should contain links to Web pages containing the content of what would have been in the attachment. This may require creating a page in an existing site or ANGEL course, or asking one of the SGU News editors to create the page with your attachment information in it. This option gives the recipient the choice of accessing the content with one click and not taxing the University's resources.

Explanation:

Bulk e-mail requires that each message be duplicated for every address appearing in the To:, CC: and BCC: address fields. This taxes resources, even more so if there are attachments. Attachments to bulk e-mail must be recreated, re-sent, re-stored by the e-mail servers and then re-downloaded for each recipient. For example, one relatively small attachment of 50KB sent to 500 people actually consumes 25MB of space and bandwidth when it is sent. Remember, too, that each SGU e-mail account is subject to size limitations. Once this limit is reached, no further e-mail can enter that mailbox. An inbox full of attachments blocks important messages from reaching the owner of that account, sometimes with serious consequences.

Corollary to Policy:

Put all recipient names in the BCC: field

Explanation:

If one of the recipients accidentally clicks on 'Reply to All', then every recipient listed in the To: and CC: fields receives a copy of the message, thereby creating another bulk e-mail. BCC: recipients are not included when 'Reply to All' is used.

Appropriate Use of Bulk E-mail:

The key to appropriate use of bulk e-mail is timing. Bulk e-mail should be reserved for those situations where another method of contact is not practical due to time constraints (for example, if the Registrar, Financial Aid Office, or Dean of Students has an urgent need to notify members of a certain course or a certain group of students of something that they need immediately).
Almost all general announcements to staff and faculty can be made in a timely fashion through Annie Gill and the SGU Bulletin.

Bulk E-mail sent by students:

It is never appropriate for students to send Bulk Email. Students may send such messages to Sara Rabie in the Dean of Students Office who will send them, if appropriate and not in conflict with any other provision of this policy.

Inappropriate Use of Bulk E-mail:

Non-emergency faculty announcements to students. These should be made on the Welcome page of your individual ANGEL course. The more this is done and the more you require your students to consult them, the less the need for bulk e-mail announcements;

  • Out-of-office messages;
  • Bulk Visiting Lecture announcements to the entire University, including USSL;
  • Repeated Visiting Lecture reminders to everyone;
  • Commercial advertisements (spam);
  • Solicitation for donations;
  • Religious group announcements;
  • Electronic greeting cards;

Jokes or links to joke sites.

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