POLICY:

Use of the centrally managed Email systems of the University for mass distribution of mailings will be governed by the criticality of the content of mailings.

Rationale:

Indiscriminate mass mailing to the University community can quickly tax the capabilities of the existing system to deliver other messages that may be critical. Additionally, the receipt by University users of excessive numbers of mass mailing messages is a work-place irritant and does not promote the efficient use of information system or human resources.

Standards & Procedures:

Critical Messages. Critical messages that need to be distributed to all University employees must be approved by the President, the Provost, a Vice President, or the Director of University Relations prior to submission for distribution. Critical messages intended for students must be approved by the Vice President for Student Services prior to distribution.

Informational Mailing Lists. Users of email systems at Georgia State University are not permitted to arbitrarily send messages to all, or nearly all, of the system users. Instead, Informational Mailing Lists have been created and are designed to reach targeted audiences. Individuals may selectively join any, or all, of these mailing lists. Mailings to each list are distributed on a nightly basis.

Additionally, messages sent to Informational Mailing Lists are published - and can be viewed by both members and nonmembers - on the web. Further, each Thursday, a single weekly digest of messages distributed to Informational Mailing Lists is delivered to all faculty, staff, and student email users on campus (subject line: Summary of Electronic Announcements).

Production Messages. Messages to be generated by a production application, and sent on a schedule to a specific population, require a one-time advance approval by the President, the Provost, or a Vice President.

Procedures:
Distribute a Critical System-Wide Message

Subscribe to (Join) an Informational Mailing List
Send a Message to an Informational Mailing List
Unsubscribe to (Quit) an Informational Mailing List
View Informational Mailing List Messages Posted on the Web

Distribute a Production Message

Revisions:

Revised for compliance with ISAT Senate Committee recommended formatting
(January 2003)

Approval Date(s):

Reviewed by IST:
Reviewed by Information Security Subcommittee:
Reviewed by ISAT Senate Committee:
Approved by:
Approved on: July 22, 1997
Version number: 2.0.0
Effective Date: July 22, 1997

SUMMARY OF CHANGES/ADDITIONS/DELETIONS

Revised: May 9, 2001
Revised: January 18, 2002. This revision re-validates the intent of the policy. This revision places the original policy into the ISAT Senate Committee recommended format for clarity and ease of reference and update. As a result of this reformatting, the majority of material has been incorporated into Procedural Documents that are included as separate documents associated with the policy.

This policy was modified on April 15, 2003 to remove the word "Informational" from the title and to add "Role Based Mailing Lists" and "Production Messages" as Standards.

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