Sending Mass E-mail

Policy for the Use of University Electronic Mailing Lists

It is intended that the following policy with respect to the use of University electronic mailing lists will become an addendum to the University's Acceptable Use Policy.

University electronic mailing lists have been set up to provide University-wide communication with all or a substantial subgroup of the campus such as all staff, all faculty, all students. University electronic mailing lists for these subgroups are restricted for use by authorized persons to conduct University business only.

There are occasions when a University-wide communication is an appropriate means to send a message to a large group of people. However, sending such messages may have a negative effect on computer resources especially if carried out during normal work hours. It may take a considerable amount of time for these messages to be distributed to the campus and could cause the disruption of regular mail services and cause systems on campus to be overloaded.

Therefore, before following this avenue, it is critical that you give careful consideration to whom you are targeting with your message. Sending a message to all faculty and staff when only very few within this population may be interested in the message is inappropriate use.

You may consider using one of the following alternatives:

  • DailyNews: The DailyNews is a service provided through the Office of Public Affairs and Communications. Story ideas and suggestions may be made to the DailyNews by sending a message to uofwnews@uwindsor.ca
  • University Calendar of Events: The University Calendar of Events is a service provided through the Office of Public Affairs and Communications. Events may be submitted to the University Calendar by visiting the DailyNews website. All event submissions are reviewed prior to posting.

Please note that Public Affairs and Communications reserves the right to determine the appropriateness of material submitted for inclusion in the DailyNews or University Calendar of Events.

  • Paper Media: Placing an ad/article in the student University newspaper, the Lance, should be considered. For publication deadlines, please either contact the Lance at extension 3905, fax: 971-3624 or by email at uwlance@uwindsor.ca

Policy 

On rare occasions when it is urgent to communicate in a timely fashion with the University community, a University-wide communication may be considered. You must comply with points 1 - 3 below and one of 4 or 5.

  1.  A University-wide communication must only be used for University business and will be sent only with the appropriate departmental head approval.
  2. A University-wide communication will be sent during non-peak hours (outside of normal University business hours) unless of a time-sensitive or critical nature.
  3. The content of a University-wide communication must be brief. The size of the message must be kept to a minimum and should not contain graphics or other size enhancing attributes. You may want to provide a web page link within your message to provide more information while at the same time, minimizing the size of your message.
  4. To request permission to send email campus-wide to faculty and staff, or to a large number of faculty and/or staff, please contact Public Affairs and Communications by email at pac@uwindsor.ca.
  5. To request permission to send an email to a designated student group(s), please complete the online form - Request for a Student Mass Email.

Include the following information in your email message:

  • Subject:
  • Target Group (All students, students by year, etc.)
  • When to send email by:
  • Who is the email to appear to be coming from: (UWindsor email address and person's name)
  • Body of the email: text only, no graphics