When preparing to send an e-mail campus-wide there are certain procedures that need to be followed. First is to decide if an individual campus-wide mailing is necessary; we have the eSU News and Campus Bulletin digest in place, in large part, to reduce the number of individual campus-wide e-mails. The eSU news can be accessed by e-mailing Christine Smith and is reserved for University related mailings. The campus bulletin digest is a more open forum.

In general, campus wide mailings should be targeted to the EVERYONE groups only to which they apply. The messages should be related to University business only, and should be something of interest to the majority of the groups to which they are sent.

Campus wide e-mails have an impact on our e-mail system. To keep this impact as small as possible, always follow the following guidelines:

There should be no resending or "corrections" e-mail to follow your original. This e-mail will be seen by many people, put in the time up front to proofread and get the information correct on the first mailing. Have a co-worker proofread it after you have gotten it where you think it is 100% accurate, they may spot something you missed.

The EVERYONE groups should always be in the BC field. This keeps those lists hidden and also prevents "Reply to All" from going to the entire mailing again.

Keep messages normal priority, if you want the message to have the Red color to stand out, change the category (Under "Send Options" ) to "Urgent".

The e-mail should be text only, and should not contain images or graphics. A URL directing the reader to graphics on the Web may be included in the body of the e-mail. The e-mail must not include attachments. A URL directing the reader to the Web for additional information/ forms should be used instead. This can be placed on your departmental website or in your P drive htdocs folder.

If your e-mail has an event, or has information which will be stale after a certain date, expire the message. This is done under "Send Options". You can set an expiration date and after that date, if the message was never read, it will delete automatically. This is especially important when sending e-mails to students, since they have smaller quotas and sometimes forward their e-mail.

If you are sending e-mail from a proxy account, or generic e-mail, always include your name. If you are writing the e-mail, take credit for it, and also responsibility. Don’t hide behind an anonymous name.

Finally, remember that all e-mail, and all computer use in general, is guided by the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). In addition to the guidelines above, the AUP also applies.