Broad Distribution and Mass Email Guidelines

General Description

Purpose:

This guideline is intended guide CSUB on how to manage the use of broad distribution and mass email communications to California State University Bakersfield’s users. The guideline establishes who is authorized to utilize the campus email platforms for broad distribution and mass email communications and what types of communication may be sent to campus users.

Definition:

Broad Distribution Groups - Certain email distribution groups have required membership based on campus affiliation. These distribution groups include All Students, All Staff, All Faculty, All MMP’'s, Auxiliaries and All Campus.

Mass Email Distribution groups - any email message sent to a large subset of the campus, such as an entire department or clubs.

Group moderator – An individual assigned the responsibility to review moderated messages sent to a Broad Distribution Group or Mass Email Distribution Group where emails may be reviewed and approved or denied for sending to the intended group.

All Broad Distribution Group and mass emails must follow the CSUB 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 which all subscribers signed up voluntarily to receive information.

Scope:

This guideline applies to the following:

All campus departments – whether auxiliaries or stateside.
All employees, students, consultants, vendors, or persons of interest who have access to the campus email platforms.

Policy/Procedure

Appropriate use of internal communication for Broad Distribution Groups.

Broad Distribution Groups are appropriate for information that pertains to most of the recipients, is critical and/or time-sensitive, and meets one or more of the following standards:

Alerts the campus community to situations about health and safety risks.
Provides information essential to the operation or execution of business.
Presidential events.

Notifies the campus community about governance, policy, and practice changes.
Messages or announcements at the discretion of the University President, Provost or Vice Presidents.
Messages or announcements to all CSU employees at the direction of the Chancellor’s Office.
Alerts for the campus to computer or telecommunications issues.
Utility outages or other construction notifications, building closures, construction updates, or road delays.

Required approval and authorizations for Broad Distribution Groups.

Authorization to send to Broad Distribution Groups is automatically granted in the cases above when they are listed as an approved sender below.

Additional items related to Broad Distribution Groups include:

Due to the official nature of emails sent to Broad Distribution Groups, individuals may not unsubscribe from these mailing lists.

Approved senders

Emails sent by the following approved senders are allowed to email the following Broad Distribution Groups.

Approved Senders	Entire Campus	All Students	All Staff	All Faculty	All MPPS	Auxiliaries
President’s Office (President, Chief of Staff, Chief Diversity Officer, designee)	X	X	X	X	X	X
VP BAS and designee	X	X	X	X	X	X
VP/Provost and designee	X	X	X	X	X	X
CSUB Alert	X	X	X	X	X	X
Emergencies– UPD	X	X	X	X	X	X
AVP ITS and designee	X	X	X	X	X	X
AVP Facilities and designee	X	X	X	X		X
HR – AVP HR and designee			X	X	X	X
Director Marketing and Communications	X	X	X	X		X
Enrollment Management – AVP and designee		X
Student Affairs – VP and designee		X
Academic Senate Chair and designee				X
AVP of Faculty Affairs and designee				X

Process to add a designee as a sender to a Broad Distribution Group

The primary MPP on the approved sender list will notify the AVP of ITS who can send on their behalf.

The primary MPP will review the list annually with the AVP of ITS to retain designee status for individuals.

The primary MPP on the approved sender list may notify the AVP of ITS to revoke the sending rights of designees at any time.

Changes may take up to 3 business days.

List Owners and Approvers

The following individuals own the Broad Distribution Groups on campus and may authorize changes to the approved senders list. The Provost’s office, AVP of HR, and AVP of Enrollment Management will appoint up to 2 group moderators to provide any moderation needed.

Moderator duties include, but are not limited to:

Responding to unauthorized individuals that send to one of the campus Broad Distribution Groups about these guidelines.
Forwarding messages regarding self-harm and threats to the campus over to the appropriate departments.

List Owner	Entire Campus	All Students	All Staff	All Faculty	All MPPS	Auxiliaries
President, Chief of Staff, VPs and designee, Provost and designee, Communications	X	X	X	X	X	X
Provost				X
AVP HR	X		X		X	X
AVP Enrollment Management		X

Creation, use and ownership of Mass Email Distribution Groups

Faculty and staff may request a mailing list to distribute email to areas that they are responsible for. The owner of a mailing list is responsible for ensuring the appropriateness of the list and for following this guideline in communicating to their recipients.

Students may request an email distribution group for clubs through their faculty advisor so that they may email more than 50 students directly at a time.

In addition, some units of the University have purchased software that includes mailing list capabilities. In such cases, the supervisor of the unit is considered the owner of all mailing lists managed by the software. If the unit is using software not approved by the University, then emails may be blocked through our spam blocking service.

List owners will need to provide a way for individuals in their mailing lists to unsubscribe. Some systems may not provide a way to unsubscribe, and a manual method must include simple instructions on how to request removal, and the owner must ensure that the list’s membership is updated.

You may request an email distribution group by opening a service ticket with Information Technology Services.

Local Authority

Schools, colleges, 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.

All Broad Distribution Group and Mass Email Distribution messages must contain the following:

Messages must be sent using a campus email address (@csub.edu).
In accordance with CSU Executive Order 1111, messages must be accessible.

Do not send emails that only have pictures to convey information.
Follow campus guidance on how to create accessible content.

Subject line with clearly stated subject.
Signature information that gives the name and department of the sender
Messages should not contain large attachments. Instead, if required, the sender should provide a link to an appropriate web page with detailed information.
Messages advertising events should clearly contain the Date, Time, Location, and Organizing group/organization.

All Broad Distribution Group and Mass Email Distribution messages must comply with CSUB’s Acceptable Computer and Network Use policy.

All Broad Distribution Group and Mass Email Distribution messages can not contain the following:

Public debate or opinion.
Political statements, endorsements, or non-University-related fundraising activities.
Personal items for purchase/rent or sought for purchase/rent.
Advertisements, announcements, or promotions for outside organizations or non-University-related events, activities, or concerns.
Information that is not considered accessible.

Union Use of Campus’ Electronic Mail (“Email”) System

Electronic mail (“email”) services shall continue to be available to unions for official union communications. Each union’s identifier shall appear on all materials sent by a union through the campus’ email system. Each union will manage and utilize their own distribution lists. These guidelines will have no impact on official union communications or the tools each unions uses, and union members may email each other as they normally do. The University will not block or interfere with those communications. The unions shall not use any of the campus created and owned Broad Distribution lists set forth in these guidelines. If the unions do utilize Mass Email Distribution groups, they must abide by the University’s acceptable use policy and comply with any legal obligations.

Review (Frequency and Process)

This guideline shall be reviewed every two years by the Associate Vice President & CIO or a designee.