ITS Mass Email Communication Policy

Communicating with Large Groups on Campus

1. Mass Email refers to an unsolicited electronic email sent to a large number of email addresses.
2. University-wide communication refers to communication with all or a substantial subgroup of the campus, such as all staff, all faculty, all students.

In order to facilitate electronic communication to large groups at Queen's University, ITS fully supports and provides the following electronic mass communication methods and services. Methods other than those listed below, such as the sending of unsolicited mass email where the sender does not have the appropriate working relationship with the targeted group are prohibited and violate the Responsible Use of Digital Resources Policy.

• Campus Mailing List Services
• World Wide Web Page Services
• Administrative Necessity

Opt-in Mailing Lists

Email or web-based mailing lists are a very effective and efficient means of university-wide communication. Voluntary or "opt-in" mailing lists for university-wide communication or communication to a substantial subgroup (all staff, all students, all faculty or some combination thereof) may be requested by faculty and staff members at Queen's University. Web-based mailing lists represent an effective means of communicating information to very large groups with minimal resource usage as thousands of copies of a single message are not sent to everyone's mailbox. Instead, individuals interested in the information on a specified topic voluntarily elect to view the mailing list home page. For more information on email and web-based Mailing List Services, please visit the Mailing List Services Home page.

Please note that subscribing individuals to your mailing list without their permission or consent, if you do not have a working relationship with them based on your role or function at Queen's, is a violation of the Queen's Acceptable Use of Information Technology Resources Policy.

Administrative Necessity

In the rare event that communication with a substantial number of University employees and students is required, for which the above-approved avenues of electronic communication have been deemed to not be appropriate, mass communication via email may be considered, provided that the "Sender" of the information has first obtained approval from the responsible University authority. This ensures 1) Email "content" distributed by ITS contains information that is essential and relevant to each recipient's Queen's University role or function and, 2) The "Sender" of the email has been granted permission to send unsolicited email in the absence of an appropriate working relationship with the recipients of his or her message. The sender of time-sensitive or otherwise urgent information should not rely on Mass Email as the only means of distribution as no guarantee can be provided that such mail will be read in a timely fashion. The content of Mass Email should be brief with the medium selectively used for compelling reasons related to employment or student issues. Large broadcast groups should never be used for any other reason, and making broadcasts using methods other than the approved ones will be considered a violation of the Computer User Code of Ethics and subject to the associated disciplinary procedures. 

Emergencies, such as the communication of a natural disaster, should follow the procedures outlined in the Queen's University Disaster Plan and is outside the scope and purpose of this policy.