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Policies and Guidelines

Bulk E-mail Approval Policies and Procedures

Audience:

All members of the Northwestern Community and users of the University network.

Definition:

Bulk e-mail is recognized as an important medium for facilitating communication within the Northwestern community. The potential misuse of bulk e-mail is also recognized. The policies and procedures found in this document attempt to provide guidance for the appropriate use of bulk e-mail, and when necessary, the approval to send bulk e-mail.

Policy Statement:

University-wide distribution of e-mail messages requires:

  • Identification of the target audience for the message.
  • Arranging distribution with the appropriate sender/s of bulk e-mail.
  • Approval of the message (as discussed below).

Background Issues:

General Guidelines

The University's electronic mail addresses are not used for commercial advertising for enterprises outside of the University. Examples of excluded uses are:

  • Commercial advertising for merchants or service providers external to the University, except for notices of services and discounts arranged for members of the University community 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.
  • Surveys or solicitations to members of the community selected on demographic characteristics, such as to selected groups or individuals identified as candidates for research subjects.
  • Targeted audiences that might appear discriminatory or may appear to be infringement on privacy.
  • Offensive material.
  • Repeated requests to make the same or a similar announcement.

Under certain limited circumstances, senders of e-mail messages that advertise or promote a product, service, or program being offered by the University or by a third-party through the University, may be required to (i) identify the message as an advertisement or a promotion, (ii) include a valid physical mailing address in the body of the message, and (iii) provide the recipient with a way to decline to receive any additional messages that advertise or promote the product, service or program at issue. These requirements typically apply when unsolicited e-mails are sent -- either to groups of faculty, staff, students and/or alumni or to prospective students or members of the public -- that include the advertisement or promotion of a product or service being offered by or through the University.

When creating bulk e-mail content, please adhere to the following guidelines to ensure proper formatting and readability.

Subject Line: Self-explanatory. Should be clear and concise.

Body: This must be a plain-text file. Bulkmail cannot handle BOLD, ITALICS, tabs, or any other special formatting.

  • If your original message is a Word file, paste the text into Notepad, TextEdit, etc. and adjust it to avoid garbage characters. Also check for erroneous line breaks.
  • Always check URLs and do not queue the message unless you are satisfied that the link/s work.
  • Check message readability. Does this message make sense to the reader?
  • Verify the accuracy of the dates, if applicable. Make sure the date and day agree, e.g. is Wednesday really the 6th?

Why can't I make my bulkmail message "pretty" so users will be compelled to read it?
The primary purpose of bulkmail is to facilitate communication. E-mail users across the world use different clients (e.g. Eudora, Outlook), hardware (e.g. PC, Linux, Apple), and operating systems (e.g. Windows XP, 2000, Macintosh OS X, OS X 10.2 (and above)) that handle graphics and formatting differently. The bulkmail system is designed to deliver a basic text message to the most people in a manner that will ensure readability.

Whenever possible, we encourage the use of monthly or quarterly electronic newsletters in lieu of frequent bulk e-mails to disseminate information to the University community. This is currently done by many service providers at Northwestern, including University Services and Human Resources. We also encourage the use of targeted audiences via electronic mailing lists (listserv) to reduce the amount of irrelevant e-mail received by individuals. Please note that other less intrusive forms of communication, such as Plan-IT Purple or the Northwestern Observer, are often alternatives when a bulk e-mail request is rejected based on the guidelines. Whenever possible, please consider sending collaborative bulk e-mails with others at the University to avoid redundancy.

When approval is not needed

Local Authority

Schools and academic departments are authorized to send messages to their students, faculty, or staff, and approval is not necessary.

Official University Announcements

Certain administrative departments that need to make periodic announcements to members of the Northwestern community are granted authority to send bulk e-mail via the electronic bulk e-mail system maintained by the NUIT Technology Support Services department for sending messages on matters of University business. The following offices are able to send bulk e-mail as shown. These offices are granted this authority through appropriate discussions and review with the bulk e-mail ad-hoc committee.

  • To students: President, Provost, NUIT, University Services, Registrar, VP Student Affairs, Health Services, University Relations, Facilities Management, University Police
  • To staff: President, Provost, NUIT, University Services, VP Research, HR, NUSAC, University Relations, Facilities Management, University Police
  • To faculty: President, Provost, NUIT, University Services, VP Research, HR, Center for Teaching Excellence, University Relations, Facilities Management, University Police
Emergency

In a NU community-wide emergency, approval may be bypassed. As is detailed in Northwestern's Emergency Response Plan, emergency communications are coordinated by University Relations. The contact for emergency communications is Alan Cubbage, VP for University Relations.

When approval is needed: The approval process and specific guidelines

Messages to faculty, students and/or staff University-wide, such as to all students, or to a significant subgroup of staff, faculty or students, must be approved, unless they are covered by the guidelines above (see "When Approval is Not Needed" section).

Who to Contact for Approval

Wendy Woodward, Director of Technology Support Services, or Dennis Sage, Associate Director of Technology Support Services, may be contacted to initiate the approval process, or the contacts listed below may be contacted directly.

  • Approval for Bulk E-mail to Students: Messages directed to students University-wide are reviewed for approval by the office of the vice president for student affairs (contact Mary Desler, Associate VP for Student Affairs, m-desler@northwestern.edu). See further guidelines below before seeking approval.
  • Approval for Bulk E-mail to Faculty: Messages directed to faculty University-wide are reviewed for approval by the Office of the Provost (contact Bill Hayward, Director of Analytical Studies, bh@northwestern.edu). See further guidelines below before seeking approval.
  • Approval for Bulk E-mail to Staff: Messages directed to staff University-wide are reviewed for approval by the Department of Human Resources (contact Pamela S. Beemer, Associate VP for Human Resources, p-beemer@northwestern.edu). See further guidelines below before seeking approval.

Guidelines for approval of Bulk E-mail to students

In an effort to prevent the proliferation of unrequested e-mail to students, the following guidelines will be used when a request is made to send bulk e-mail to students:

  1. Each fall, students will be placed on a class-specific listserv (one for freshmen, one for sophomores, another for juniors, seniors, graduate and professional students). These listservs will be used by University offices and the class councils to notify students of class-specific events (e.g., Senior Week activities, freshman formal, sophomore symposium, Graduate Student Appreciation Week events) and/or to disseminate class-specific information (e.g., information about placement services to seniors). At the end of each message, information will be provided on how to unsubscribe from the listserv.
  2. The bulk e-mail capability will not be used to advertise or market campus programs, activities or events. Other mechanisms are available for this purpose (e.g., Plan-IT Purple, Daily Northwestern, Northwestern Observer, and other campus listservs). Consult the Associate Vice President for Student Affairs for more information regarding targeted listservs.
  3. The bulk e-mail capability will seldom be used to distribute surveys to all students. However, students, faculty, and staff wishing to distribute surveys to students should consult the Associate Vice President for Student Affairs regarding related policies and procedures for disseminating surveys.

Guidelines for approval of Bulk E-mail to faculty

The Provost's Office has been charged with the responsibility of screening requests to send bulk e-mail to all faculty members. Bulk e-mail to faculty should be used primarily for announcements by the central administration regarding matters of University policy, changes in procedures, etc. Requests will generally not be granted to send messages that are essentially advertisements for lectures, seminars, or other similar programs. Units wishing to send such messages are encouraged to develop unit-specific lists of e-mail addresses of faculty members with demonstrated interests in their programs.

Guidelines for approval of Bulk E-mail to staff

Only Northwestern University employees (but not contributed service or adjunct faculty) may request that a bulk e-mail be sent to staff. Access to bulk e-mail is made available for University purposes on a University-wide or unit-wide basis, as the purpose requires. Electronic mail addresses are not made available to persons or organizations outside of Northwestern University.

Selected notices and announcements of broad interest, usefulness, or need among staff are acceptable uses of bulk e-mail. Such notices and announcements include, among others, those for:

  • Presidential announcements.
  • Emergency notices.
  • Expected street, traffic, and parking interruptions resulting from construction.
  • Services having general University use such as travel and transportation.
  • Broadcasts of NUIT service changes or updates.
  • Special events conducted by the University, such as observances for Take Our Daughters to Work Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Commencement Day, and Move-in Day.
  • Other announcements or news reports affecting the community or the University.

Departments obtaining lists in the form of electronic files to use for an approved mailing to staff are to comply with this policy on subsequent uses of the same list for additional mailings.

Members of the ad-hoc committee on bulk e-mail

Al Cubbage, Vice-President for University Relations
Bill Berry, Assistant Registrar, University Registrar's Office
Mary Desler, Associate Vice-President for Student Affairs
Bill Hayward, Director of Analytical Studies
John Margolis, Associate Provost
Pamela Beemer, Associate Vice-President for Human Resources
Brian Peters, Director of University Services
Ruth Reingold, Director of Computing Technology, WCAS
Staci Roberts, Director of Web Communications
Wendy Woodward, Director, Technology Support Services

Original Issue Date:

April 2003

Revision Dates:

April 2006
September 2007

Support Contact

Please contact Bill Hayward (bh@northwestern.edu) if you have any questions about these procedures and guidelines.

Last Updated: 15 February 2008