Policies & Procedures
DoIT will use the most current email addresses on file for the
target audience and will schedule distribution
to minimize the impact on network resources. You provide the actual
message, identify the target audience based on available selection
criteria, and specify the date for emailing. All mailings must meet
the UW-Madison Responsible Use of Information Technology Policy.
The mass email is sent during non-peak hours to minimize the impact
on network resources. To accommodate scheduling and setup, you should
notify DoIT 7 days before your desired mailing date.
Faculty/staff: DoIT uses the email addresses on file with
the Employee Compensation & Benefits Services (EC&BS) office.
(Examples: all employees within certain UDDS, all faculty and instructional
staff.)
Students: DoIT uses the email addresses on file with the Office
of the Registrar. (Examples: all freshmen, all students in College
of Letters & Science.)
You can send two different kinds of mass electronic mail. The cost varies, depending on the service
you request.
- Send the same message to an identified audience.
- Send a message to an identified audience, with information unique
to each recipient.
Mass Email Criteria
The following requirements must be met in order to use the Mass Email
service. Please contact the service provider if you have any questions
concerning this list.
- Sender must be a UW-Madison faculty, staff member, or the primary student contact of a registered student organization, including affiliated
UW-Madison individuals (e.g., System Administration, UW-Extension).
- Email content must be relevant to UW-Madison's mission of teaching, research, public service, or student involvement.
- Email must comply with the policy governing Appropriate
Use of UW Information Technology Resources.
- Email cannot be sent for personal purposes or gain.
- Email must be related to the programs or operations of the University.
Email can include ticket prices for UW-Madison events.
- You should submit your request for service 7 days prior to the date
of your desired mailing.
- Email messages will be sent out Monday through Thursday. Large mailings
(>15K addresses) may be sent during non-peak hours. Smaller mailings
may be sent during the day, at the discretion of the service provider.
- Email subject line must be descriptive.
- Body of email must contain sender's name and department affiliation.
- Size of email should not be excessively long.
- Email must be in text only (ASCII) format. The service does not
support sending attachments (e.g., MS Word document). Another option
is to include a hyperlink in your electronic message that will link
to a specially formatted (PDF, MSWord, etc.) file that resides on
a web server.
- The line length of your message should not exceed 76 characters.
This will increase the likelihood that the formatting of your message
will remain as you've intended.
- Hyperlinks should include the fully qualified (include the http://
protocol) to assure that most recipients will see an "active" link
in your message. It is also a good idea to enclose URLs between less-
than and greater-than symbols to avoid problems with word wrapping,
which can cause problems for the recipients of your message. Example:
<http://www.wisc.edu/>
DoIT does not check messages for errors. The customer is solely
responsible for the content of the message and should follow the guidelines
listed above to assure a successful communication.
