Mass Email Policy

Definition

Email is TTUHSC’s official means of communicating information to faculty, staff, and students. Mass email is any email message sent to the entire campus or large subset (e.g., all students, all faculty, all staff). All mass emails must follow the TTUHSC mass email guidelines and procedures and be consistent with any applicable state and federal laws. These requirements do not apply to units when sending messages within their own unit, school, or college or to emails in which all subscribers signed up voluntarily to receive information.

Appropriate Use of Internal Mass Email

Mass email is appropriate for information that:

1. Pertains to the majority of the recipients
   
   AND
   
   
2. Is critical and/or time-sensitive
   
   AND
   
   
3. Meets one or more of the following standards:
   1. Alerts the campus community to situations about health and safety risks
   2. Provides information essential to the operation or execution of business
   3. Notifies the campus community about changes in governance, policy, and practice
   4. Communicates important information from the president, provost, or other university senior leadership.

Inappropriate use of internal mass email includes, but is not limited to:

• Messages that are not in line with the university’s mission of education, research, and service;
• Messages that are commercial in nature with the exception of those messages that are in support of university business;
• Political activities that advocate for or against a ballot measure or candidate
• Messages for job postings or research recruitment;
• Marketing or advertising of programs, majors, classes, products, or events offered or sponsored by the university
• Solicitations for contributions, charities, or participation in personal activities not related to university purposes or not sponsored by the university
• Solicitations for non-university businesses operated by university faculty or staff
• Messages that are discriminatory or infringe on privacy

Announcements that do not meet the outlined standards, or are inappropriate for mass email should use other communication channels as listed below.

Additional Internal Communication Channels

Before deciding on mass email as the choice for any communication, units are strongly encouraged to use:

• Announcements System
• Events System
• Statline (monthly internal email)
• StatlineTV (weekly internal vlog)
• Social Media (school or university level) - submit request
• Digital signage - start a project
• Printed signage - start a project
• Direct mail - start a project

Emergency

In an emergency, approval may be bypassed.

Local Authority

Schools, departments, units, and administrative offices are authorized to send messages to their students, faculty, or staff, in accordance with department or school guidelines and procedures. Units are encouraged to use best practices detailed here. Contact your supervisor for direction and/or approval. 

Required Content

Requests for messages to be sent to internal (@ttuhsc.edu) email addresses must include all of the following:

• Name of the sending unit (preferred) or the sending individual in the "from" field.
• Name of the sending unit and the audience the message was sent to in the footer (e.g., "This message was sent by the Office of the President to all TTUHSC faculty and staff.").