The University recognizes the need for the campus community to send electronic communications of both a critical and a general nature electronically to various groups on campus. The University is aware, at the same time, of the need to protect the privacy of the campus community and to ensure that mass electronic communications to campus groups are essential and relevant to its academic mission.
The University also recognizes the need, in special instances, for sending mass email to off-campus groups. When this channel of communication is used, the sender must be sensitive to the dual role the University plays in the Internet community as an Internet Service Provider (ISP) and an educational institution. Unless special precautions are taken, off-campus mass-emails may be viewed solely as being transmitted from an ISP, and not from an educational institution, with negative ramifications resulting from violation of law to violations of best-practices in the Internet community.
This policy on the use of mass electronic communication and mass e-mail applies to all members of the campus community.
The University prohibits any member of the campus community from using University resources to send unsolicited, mass electronic communications or “Spam” on-campus or off-campus for any content outside the scope of its university mission. This prohibition extends to all mail servers within the campus network domain (e.g., ilstu.edu, IllinoisState.edu, ilstu.org, and other domain names registered under the University).
To facilitate appropriate mass electronic communication, the University has defined five channels along with directives for their appropriate use and management. Special considerations have been prescribed for surveys, research, and for off-campus mass-email communication.
With few exceptions, mass-electronic communications require permission from the recipients and the communication must offer an option to be removed from the list at any time. The exceptions include campus administrators and instructors as follows:
• Persons in an official administrative position have the right to contact staff or students under their scope of administrative responsibility without prior permission.
• The President and Vice Presidents maintain authority over special mass-communication channels designed to contact large sectors of the campus community without prior permission.
• Instructors retain the right to use mass-electronic communication to contact students registered for their classes during the current semester without prior permission.
The following topics are covered in this policy with respect to campus mass-electronic communications:
Section 1. Introduction
Section 2. Definitions
Section 3. Campus Channels for Mass-Electronic Communication
Section 4. Restrictions on Composing Messages for Mass Communication
Section 5. Communications between Instructor and Students
Section 6. Requesting Mass-Email Communication Lists or Portal Announcements
Section 7. Sending Surveys to On-campus Recipients
Section 8. Sending Communications and Surveys to Off-campus Recipients
Section 9. Critical Communications to Campus Populations Not Accessible Electronically
Section 10. Grievances
Section 11. Exceptions
To ensure that a message is seen by all intended parties, more than one channel of communication may be used. When using the various channels of communication, there is no guarantee that everyone in a campus group will receive the electronic message. All electronic communication from the campus community must adhere to the Appropriate Use Policy for campus electronic services. The Mass Electronic Communications policy does not supersede the Policy on Appropriate Use.
2.1. Mass Electronic Communication or Mass Email. For the University campus, any electronic communication of the same message, in multiple or single mailings, to 100 or more recipients, is defined as mass electronic communication. This includes communication of differing wording that conveys the same message as well as communication sent on behalf of the university through Internet Service Providers other than Illinois State University.
2.2. Spam. The University’s definition of Spam is broadly defined as unsolicited electronic communication, outside of the scope of the University mission, sent to a group of recipients, on- or off-campus, without their permission.
2.3. Listserv(s). A listserv is a software program that automatically distributes email to members subscribed to the email list. Listservs are designed to efficiently manage the transmission of email to a large number of recipients.
2.4. iCampus Portal. Campus web-based access to University resources where information presented is personalized to individuals based on their role(s) within the University community.
2.5. ULID. The University Logon Identification is the electronic user name assigned to members of the University community when their personal campus Internet services are activated.
2.6. Opt-in and Opt-out. Subscribers to mass email listservs may elect to opt-in to a list (subscribe) or opt-out of a list (unsubscribe). A no-opt-out list provides no option for people to remove themselves from the list membership.
2.7. Subscribed membership. The following types of subscribed membership for mass electronic communications are defined:
2.8. On-campus and Off-campus Communication. On-campus refers to mass-electronic communication that is sent by any member of the University community (faculty, staff, students, etc) to another member of the University community. In most instances, while not exclusively, this will be via desktops or servers within the ilstu.edu or IllinoisState.edu domain, or any of its subdomains. Off-campus refers to mass-electronic communication that is sent by a member of the University community to anyone else in the Internet world at-large. Individuals using ISPs other than ilstu.edu or IllinoisState.edu domain, to send mass email while pursing the mission of the University (e.g., IRB approved research) must adhere to the University’s mass-electronic communication policy.
2.9. Administrator. The term administrator refers to a person officially recognized by the University as having responsibility over a campus unit and its faculty and staff. In the case of an academic unit, the administrator’s responsibility would extend to students who are officially participating in academic programs under the responsibility of that administrator. An administrator may appoint a designee for a mass-electronic communication but retains responsibility for the event.
The University provides five channels of electronic communication for members of the University community to send information to, and engage in discussions with, selected campus groups. Those five mass communication channels are as follows:
This communications channel is reserved for messages where urgency is necessary or where the message is of sufficient importance that all members of the campus community need to be informed. Examples include:
The President shall be the administrator of this communications channel. The subject heading should begin with the prefix “PRES-ALERT:” and the first sentence of the campus-wide email should read: “This email is being sent to all members of the Illinois State University community from the Office of the President.” This is an announcement-only channel. The membership setting for this channel is subscribed-without-permission for the entire campus community; opt-out is not permitted.
This communications channel is reserved for transmitting urgent messages or messages of sufficient importance that all members of predefined University populations need to be contacted. Examples include:
Eight predefined groups have been designated: Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost All campus faculty (isu-announce-faculty-l) All campus graduate students (isu-announce-grads-l) Vice President for Finance and Planning All campus administrative/professional staff (isu-announce-apstaff-l All campus civil service staff (isu-announce-csstaff-l) Vice President for Student Affairs All campus students (isu-students-l) All campus undergraduate students (isu-announce-undergrads-l) All campus seniors (isu-seniors-l)
All campus freshmen (isu-freshman-l) the mass-email channels are administered by the designated vice president, and officially transmitted under the vice president’s name. The subject heading should begin with the prefix “VP-Communication:” and the first sentence of the campus-wide email should read:
“This email is being sent to all <insert group> from the Office of the <insert VP’s title and name>.” This is an announcement only channel. The membership setting for this channel is subscribed-without-permission for the entire campus community; opt-out is not permitted.
This communications channel is the preferred channel for sharing campus information and discussions of mutual interest among a wide variety of groups within the campus community. It is the most flexible of the campus mass electronic communication options and uses email listserv technology for implementation. All mass-email groups require designating a person to be the owner of the group. Several options are available:
3.3.1. Subscribed-with-permission, opt-out permitted. Anyone on campus may establish such a communications channel for any group of staff and/or students with a common interest. Membership in the listserv may not be pre-subscribed, and members must have the option to opt-out of the listserv at any time. No approval is needed to establish this type of electronic communication.
3.3.2. Subscribed-without-permission, opt-out permission optional. Any administrator may establish such a communications channel for faculty, staff, and students under their scope of responsibility. The administrator may decide if the list members may opt-out. Choosing to not permit opt-out should be used with discretion.
3.3.3. Announcement versus Discussion. Any email listserv within the mass-email group channel may be established for announcements only (read-only list) or as a discussion listserv. With a discussion mass-email group, members of the group may respond to postings from the group. For a discussion group, the owner, or designated moderator, has responsibility for managing the electronic discussions. This person has the responsibility of keeping the discussion on topic and ensuring that the email postings adhere to the campus Appropriate Use Policy. Campus webboards and chat groups may be considered as another alternative to discussion listservs.
The iCampus portal provides personalized access to campus information. The announcements channel on the iCampus portal is now available.
A person using iCampus sees only the information targeted to the role or roles that person holds within the campus community (student, faculty, staff, etc.) and membership within degree programs, committees, groups, organizations, departments and units, and the like. The iCampus announcements are technically more efficient to implement and manage and are therefore recommended over other forms of mass electronic communication whenever possible. Campus-wide iCampus announcements will be administered by the President and Vice Presidents and follow the same guidelines as the mass email channels detailed in Sections 3.1 and 3.2. The default membership setting for this channel is subscribed-without-permission; opt-out not permitted within iCampus portal preferences. Group announcements will follow the same guidelines as the mass-email group channel detailed in Section 3.3. The default membership setting for this channel will default to optional within iCampus portal preferences, except if designated not-optional by an authorized administrator.
Any member of the University community can send individual email messages to one or more individuals; current restrictions limit the number of recipients to fewer than 100, either in multiple or single mailings of the same or similar message. People needing to communicate with 100 or more recipients should use the General Campus Email Groups channel (3.3 or 3.4 above). Originators of email to fewer than 100 recipients should use discretion when sending to groups of people without their permission. Sensitivity should be shown to the sender-receiver relationship, and the sender should discontinue sending to anyone who indicates he or she does not wish to receive further communications. Failure to acknowledge such a request will be in violation of the campus Appropriate Use Policy.
When composing an email message to send through any of the mass-email channels, the following restrictions apply:
The mass electronic communication policy is not meant to interfere with the ability of an instructor to establish communication with students in a class. For classes with more than 100 students, the General Campus Email Group policy should be followed (Section 3.3). Instructors may choose subscribed-without-permission, opt-out not permitted, for students in their classes for the current semester only. Webboards and chat groups may also be considered as alternatives for a class listserv.
Requests for creating mass-email lists for the Mass-Email Group channel (Section 3.3) or for iCampus portal announcements (Section 3.4) are made through an automated campus web form created for this purpose. The form requests information concerning the scope of the campus membership to be used, the choice of communication channel, opt-in or opt-out status, and other information necessary for constructing the list and determining the list’s scope and appropriateness. ( The technology for completing the online form is under development; a manual procedure will be available from a campus web page in the interim.) Subscribe-without-permission/no-opt-out lists must be approved by the appropriate Vice President or designee with the exception of lists for class instruction. The person requesting the list will receive email notification when the list has been reviewed and approved, or not approved.
The University recognizes the importance of research as part of its academic mission. This policy supports the need for academic researchers to use mass-electronic communications as a research tool. Policy and procedures are defined for deploying these tools for on-campus and off-campus research (see Section 8.4.3) in appropriate ways to ensure that such communication is viewed by the recipient as an academic activity, and not as unsolicited and unwanted e-mail. To facilitate on-campus surveys for institutional and instructional research needs, all members of the campus community will be pre-subscribed to a campus-wide pool from which survey samples may be drawn. When a person activates their campus ULID they will automatically be added to the central survey pool. All campus users will have the option to opt-out of this pool by un-checking the survey membership option on their personal ULID password web page either at the time they activate their ULID or any other time they wish to change their preference. The following restrictions apply to the use of the campus-wide survey pool:
Recipients Given the sensitive issues surrounding mass-emails in the Internet community at large, discretion needs to be used when considering this channel of communication. With the University’s dual role as ISP and educational institution, any unsolicited mass-email sent off-campus may be interpreted as Spam mail. The ramifications of this are far-reaching and include negative publicity for the University, potential violation of state law, violation of Internet carrier appropriate use policies, and electronic blacklisting by Spam filtering services. To minimize the likelihood of these events, the following policy and procedure should be followed for off-campus mass-email including the use of mass email for survey and research purposes:
8.1. The communication must be related to the mission of the University.
8.2. Subscribed-without-permission, no-opt-out membership for off-campus mass-email is not permitted.
8.3. Subscribed-with-permission, opt-out membership is to be used in all circumstances except those noted in 8.4. No approval is needed to establish the channel of off-campus communication. Research surveys do require IRB approval.
8.4. Subscribed-implied-permission, opt-out membership may be used in special circumstances. Those exceptions include:
8.5. The following criteria should be applied when evaluating the validity and appropriateness of an off-campus list, be it subscribed-with-permission or subscribed-implied-permission:
8.6. The Subject line in the email must use the prefix of “Illinois State University:”. The message should begin with wording to the effect: “Illinois State University is contacting you in order to…,” “Your name and email address was obtained through…,” “Please let us know if you do not want to be contacted further….” Variations that meet the spirit of this wording may be approved by the appropriate VP. Research surveys may use a different protocol as defined by the URC under Section 8.4.3.
8.7. The message should be as short as possible, deferring any significant information to the Web, and end with an option to be removed from the list with instructions, and a link to this policy document. The survey instrument should not be included in the body of the e-mail or as an attachment (e.g., use a web-based survey).
It is the responsibility of the sender of mass-email communications to ensure that email intended to notify or inform campus faculty and staff with critical or urgent information also be published using a non-electronic method. This is to include those that, due to the nature of their job responsibilities, do not have access to electronic communication.
Anyone who receives a mass-electronic communication from a member of the Illinois State University community that appears to be in violation of this policy may take the following steps: First, the recipient should contact the original sender of the message and/or the associated administrator. Second, after allowing proper time and a resolution is not reached, a complaint should be filed with the Associate Vice President for Technology, Office of the Provost, who will consult with the appropriate administrator(s). The final decision as to whether to treat the violation as an Appropriate Use Policy violation will be decided by this office in consultation with the Vice President for the unit where the alleged violation occurred. The incident will then be handled following the process defined in the Appropriate Use Policy. To report improper electronic communication received from external Internet Service Providers (ISPs), it is recommended that complaints be filed with that ISP according to their procedures (usually to an "abuse" or "postmaster" address).
The University President or the President’s designees are empowered to make exceptions to the Mass Electronic Communication policy for their constituencies. Such exceptions should only be made if, in the Officer’s judgment, the benefits of mass-electronic communication with respect to the immediacy of the communication, universal distribution, and truly significant content, outweigh the costs associated with infringing upon the general principle of controlled mass electronic distribution. Appeals concerning the use of Vice President-controlled communication channels also may be made to the University President or the President’s designee.
Any member of the campus community, who uses an electronic communications connection through Illinois State University, whether from on-campus or remotely from off-campus, must comply with this policy.
The President of Illinois State University has approved the Policy on Campus Mass Electronic Communications. This policy will be periodically reviewed by the Information Technology Policy and Planning Council and changes or additions to this policy will be recommended by this Council to the President of the University. Information technology resources and systems are changing rapidly both in terms of technology and application, and the University reserves the right to amend this policy at any time. The version posted on the web at www.policy.ilstu.edu/ is the governing policy.
Last Review: January 2005
