University of Minnesota Morris Student Email List Communication Procedures

Approved for Implementation by VC Group Fall 2022

Protocol on use of the UMN Morris Official student Email list

The UMN Morris Official email list can be used by campus programs, faculty and staff to disseminate information by email about university services, policies, major events, programs, or opportunities to the Morris student body. It is important that this tool be used responsibly and judicially to assure its ongoing effectiveness. Messages that may be more appropriately directed to other communication tools such as the campus events calendar or more targeted group messaging services should go to those tools. Consistent with University of Minnesota email criteria for campuses and colleges, the email must pertain to a majority of the desired recipients and should be deemed critical enough to distribute to the entire audience.

University of Minnesota Morris Internal Email Guidelines

The following information is excerpted and modified from University of Minnesota University Relations Internal Mass Email Guidelines It is helpful in developing good communications relevant to Morris students. Morris guidelines recognize the flexibility provided to college-specific communication within UM campuses. 

Definition

For the purposes of these guidelines and requirements, internal mass email—regardless of the tool or system used to send the message—is any single or group of identical unsolicited mailings sent to a list of individuals within the University of Minnesota system.

These guidelines and requirements do not applyto messages that are sent to a group of email addresses:

• created for a class;
• made up of members of a student organization or residents of a residence hall;
• made up of all or any combination of students, faculty, or staff members within their own unit;
• that a unit has a relationship with (students in a specific major, people who have purchased a ticket for a performance); or
• where all subscribers signed up voluntarily to receive information.

Requirements and Restrictions

Internal mass email is appropriate for:

• Messages that are time sensitive.
• Messages that serve as a short digest or newsletter that directs people to other locations for more information.
• Messages regarding a University service, policy, major event, program, or opportunity that apply to all or a majority of the recipients, limited generally to one message per event, program or opportunity.

Unacceptable use of internal mass email includes:

• Messages that are not in line with the mission of the University.
• Messages that are personal in nature.
• Messages that should be directed to other communication tools (i.e. events should be in the campus events calendar rather than sent to the ummofficial list)
• 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 target audiences that might appear discriminatory or may appear to be infringement on privacy.
• Offensive material.

To promote operational efficiency and network security when sending internal mass email:

• Attachments are not allowed in mass email. Use a link to a website or a Google doc instead. This includes images that are embedded in the message. These are essentially attachments.
• Messages sent to University email addresses must be consistent with existing University policies.

Best Practices 

To keep the amount of mass email at a minimum and to promote readability:

• Email messages should be brief, self-explanatory, clear, and concise.
• Avoid sending frequent or repeated messages. Use other UMN Morris communication methods.
• Send collaborative messages with others at the University to avoid redundancy and reduce the number of messages sent.

Background

A Fall 2021 review of existing communication procedures identified the following existing communication tools:

• Ummoffical the student list continues to operate under the Fall 2017 procedures, however, during the pandemic some things which might have been questioned earlier were allowed through in the interest of trying to provide greater communication in the challenging time. 
• The Campus Events Calendar continues to operate and can be a valuable tool if it is utilized. It is fed information by the Astra Scheduling System, Side Arm Athletic website, and the Campus Connection system, as well as allowing individuals to manually add information through an event submission form. 
• The Weekly Digest produced by the Campus Events Calendar is sent out to students through ummofficial and to all employees on Tuesday mornings.
• Campus Connection. Ideally this tool will provide a far more efficient method for organizations to communicate with their membership. The data issues we have struggled with since its implementation (some U of M IT related and some with the software provider) along with timing of the pandemic have resulted in incomplete data and lower than expected student buy in. 
• The Weekly Bulletin produced by Communications and Marketing should highlight upcoming events, and other news items of importance to Faculty, Staff, and Students. This tool has been suspended due to staffing challenges in Communications and Marketing.
• The University of Minnesota Morris Facebook Forum is managed by MCSA. This has been relatively effective, though Facebook use by incoming students seems to be on the decline. 

Ongoing challenges:

• The existing procedures for use of the calendar prevent meetings from appearing in the calendar as this would quickly overwhelm the entire calendar.
• The sheer volume of communication tools available can be overwhelming and are not all endorsed by the University as official methods of communication.
• Student’s ability to seek out information and self engage seems to be waning each year. The Pandemic may have heightened a tendency for students to rely even more on their parents to schedule their engagements and feed them information rather than learning to search out opportunities.