7-7 Listservs and Announcements for Students

• Attachments are included in the PDF file.
• Effective date of this revision: September 1, 2007
• Contact for more information: Dean of Students

POLICY

Moderated, electronic mailing lists of students have been established primarily for messages “from the dean of students” regarding information considered to be of interest and importance to most if not all students. Other matters of University business which are merely “news items” may also be approved for distribution. Employees may also use other means of electronic communication for university purposes, those are governed by the master policy on Digital Communication and the Acceptable Use Policy.

BACKGROUND

CMU recognizes the efficiency of employing digital communications among its students and employees. Digital communication saves time, saves money, and is often the fastest, most effective method of communication among members of the CMU community. At the same time, digital communications can easily be abused, and an email that seems useful and pertinent to one student or employee might easily appear as “spam” to another. While email from individual to individual is sometimes troublesome, the real issue emerges with regard to bulk or group communications, and it is this type of communication to which this policy specifically refers.

DEFINITIONS

Moderated means that all messages are approved prior to being distributed to assure they meet the criteria of this policy. All responses to the distributed message go back to the Dean of Students unless otherwise requested.

PROCEDURE

The Dean of Students maintains two listservs and controls access to announcements on the student portal for the use of members of the CMU community wishing to communicate with the CMU student body. Approval authority for each of these communication channels rests in the Office of the Dean of Students and guidelines and procedures for utilizing each are identified below.

1. Email listserv

Messages that are of an emergency of very important nature may be approved for distribution by the Office of the Dean of Students to all students with e-mail accounts. The likelihood of approval is greatly enhanced when the message is deemed important to most students. Examples include dealing with such issues as university financial matters, course registration, emergencies (e.g., health, weather,) or new university policies. Most other announcements will be deemed not appropriate to send to all student e-mail accounts. Persons wishing to send other electronic announcements to students are encouraged to consider posting a message on the CMU Student Announcement List (see below section.)

All students with e-mail accounts have been included on the list. This list can be sorted by all freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, graduate students, and by main campus and ProfEd enrollment. Questions should be directed to the Office of the Dean of Students at 774-3346.

Guidelines

Announcements are usually run one time and not repeated.

Information submitted by 4p.m. weekdays may be sent (if approved) the next weekday.

Emergency or very important announcements will be sent as soon as possible.

Emergency announcements will only be approved for verified emergencies.

Announcements may be submitted only by university employees.

The Office of the Dean of Students reserves the right to reject and edit announcements.

All dates, times and locations included in the announcements should be double checked prior to submission.

Procedures to submit an announcement

Persons wishing to submit an emergency announcement should submit their announcement to studentnews@cmich.edu, AND immediately call 774 -3346 or visit the Office of the Dean of Students in room 214 Bovee UC to notify them of the desire to send an emergency announcement.

The subject line of the e-mail must be the title of the announcement, written in all capital letters. This title must also be the first line of the announcement, written in all capital letters.

Announcements must include the following information for the person submitting the announcement: name, campus phone number, and e-mail address. This should be written in parentheses at the end of the message. Please use the following format: (Submitted by: name, office name, campus phone number, e-mail address).

Announcements should be 100 words or less, including the title.

2. Student Announcement List

Messages that are considered to be of possible interest to most students may be approved for distribution by the Office of the Dean of Students. The likelihood of approval is greatly enhanced when the message is deemed important to most students. Examples include speakers coming to campus, concerts, theatre productions, major social events (e.g., Gentle Friday), and athletic competitions.

Guidelines

Announcements may be submitted only by current CMU faculty, staff and the recognized leadership of registered student organizations.

Announcements must reasonably relate to university activities. CMU reserves the right to make exceptions. Announcements will not be repeated

Announcements intended for a limited audience or not deemed appropriate for CMU student will not be approved. Announcements should be submitted at least ten days prior to the event.

Not all CMU students enrolled on the Mt. Pleasant campus use e-mail and some students might unsubscribe to CMU student.

Announcements intended for CMU students must be sent by e-mail to studentnews@cmich.edu.

The subject line of the e-mail message must be the title of the announcement, written in all capital letters. This title also must be the first line of the announcements written in all capital letters.

Announcements must include the following information for the person submitted the announcements: name, department or office name (if applicable), name of registered student organization (if applicable), campus phone number, an e-mail address. This should be written in parenthesis at the end of the message. Please use the following format: (Submitted by: Name, office name, phone number, e-mail address).

A signature file may not be used as a substitute for the submission information requirement listed above. Please turn off your signature file before sending the announcement.

Announcements must be 100 words or fewer, including the title and the required submission information at the end of each announcement. Messages that are longer than 100 words may be edited by the office of the dean of student staff or may be returned to the sender for editing.

Announcements must be one paragraph only, and they must be prior to the scheduled event. One set of announcements will be sent each Monday.

The Office of the Dean of Students reserves the right to edit or reject announcements for any reason, including but not limited to noncompliance with the university’s advocacy policy or the fund-raising sales and soliciting policy.

Do not send the announcement as an attachment. The announcement must be typed directly into the body of an email message. Email messages with attachments will be returned.

Double check all dates, times and locations included in your announcement. CMU students’ distribution list has nearly 20,000 Mt. Pleasant campus student subscribers. Please keep this in mind when writing your message, and double check it for accuracy.

Procedures to remove oneself from the CMU student list

If you do not wish to receive the CMU student announcements, go to http://listserv.cmich.edu/cgi-bin/alloff.pl. To access this page you will need to use your global ID and password. Please do not go to this Web page unless you are certain that you want to be removed from the list. If at a later time you wish to add yourself back to the CMU student list, go to the Web page at http://listserv.cmich.edu/cgi-bin/allon.pl.

3. Student Portal

The CMU Portal is a web platform designed for the integrated delivery of information and on-line services to the university community. The content of the portal is the responsibility of the Office of the Dean of Students; the management of the portal is the responsibility of Information Technology. A feature of the portal is the ability to post announcements and surveys/links to surveys.

Announcements

Messages considered to be of interest to the majority of students can be posted on the portal for a limited period of time.

Surveys/Links to Surveys

Survey questions can be posted directly on the portal or users can be directed to surveys via a link. Questions posted on the survey can be forced choice and/or open-ended and can be sent to the following groups: all students, all students enrolled on the Mt. Pleasant Campus or all students enrolled through ProfEd.

Procedures to request to post an announcement or survey

Administrative offices and Registered Student Organizations (RSO) can request to place an announcement or survey on the portal. Administrative offices should send the request and information directly to the Office of the Dean of Students at studentnews@cmich.edu. RSO’s should send the request and information through the auspices of the Office of Student Life. The Office of the Dean of Students is responsible for deciding whether an announcement or survey will be placed on the portal and for how long a period.

Central Michigan University reserves the right to make exceptions, modify or eliminate this policy. This document supersedes all previous policies, procedures and directives relative to this subject.

Please refer questions or concerns to the Originating Department.