Revised 1/18/07

 

I. The University has created a process for sending e-mail broadcast correspondence (as opposed to personal or confidential e-mails) to all employees.  For those employees who do not have their own individual e-mail addresses, the correspondence will be sent to generic e-mail addresses monitored by the employees' departments for distribution to the employees.  Otherwise it will

be sent to individual e-mail addresses.

 

A. E-mail administrators from various units will provide a one-time

     load of e-mail addresses so IT can update HRS.

 

B. New employees (both faculty and staff) will be assigned an e-mail

     address when they are hired so they will be included on HRS in the

     future and will be made aware of the e-mail address and how to

     update it in myUM.  Department heads will submit forms requesting

     e-mail addresses to appropriate e-mail administrators as part of

     the hiring process for new employees, with a copy to the Faculty

     Affairs Office or Human Resources, whichever is relevant.  When

     new faculty process their I-9 forms, they will be provided a copy of

     these e-mail request forms and instructions about how to register

     this address and their e-mail alias on myUM.  Non-faculty will be

     notified as part of new employee orientation.  If appropriate,

     department heads will also submit e-mail forms in conjunction with

     inter-department transfers if the new employee needs to switch

     e-mail systems.  The system will be programmed to send e-mails

     reminding supervisors to send paper work to terminate an e-mail

     account when one of their employees leaves the University (and,

     if necessary, to reassign responsibility for the generic e-mail

     account described below). 

 

C. Supervisor names will be added to the Human Resources System.

 

D. The University will promote the use of e-mail aliases as the primary

     address used for University communications.  Human Resources,

     Information Technology, and unit heads will endeavor to have

     employees routinely update myUM whenever they change e-mail

     addresses (e.g., if they switch jobs, if their e-mail system is

     discontinued, and, if appropriate, when they go on vacation).

 

E. E-mail communications will be sent to faculty and employees

     who do not have an e-mail address on record using generic

     e-mail addresses.  Generic e-mail addresses will be assigned

     to each unit and a designated person will be assigned

     responsibility to check this generic e-mail address on a daily

     basis.  More specifically, each unit will be assigned an

     "@miami.edu" alias that would direct e-mail to an ACTUAL UNIT

     e-mail account that would reside on an e-mail system of choice

     but must not be a personal account (to avoid unmonitored e-mail

     when the designated person leaves the department).  The

     designated person would maintain this unit e-mail box or, using

     the features of the selected e-mail application, forward the

     messages to an account of choice (although this second method

     could cause confusion when replying and forwarding.).  The

     division head will decide whether this generic e-mail address

     will be assigned at the division or office level, and each unit head

     will designate someone to monitor the e-mails sent to the generic

     address and decide how to distribute them (e.g., print and provide

     a separate copy to each person in the office who does not have

     individual e-mail, circulate with a routing slip, or post on bulletin

     board).

 

IT has developed a mechanism by which e-mails sent to generic addresses will indicate who should receive them (i.e., a list of individuals in the department without their own e-mail addresses), which will facilitate distribution within the department.

 

Department heads are responsible for ensuring that responses are provided to any requests sent to a generic e-mail address (e.g., those generated by the department's Web page) just as they

are for requests sent via other media.  They must also make sure that if the designated person leaves the department or is on vacation, someone else is assigned responsibility for monitoring e-mail sent to the generic address.

 

II. The University has created a policy for determining which e-mails are mandatory (sent to everyone in a target group) and which are optional.  In addition, the "Subject" line of e-mails relating to official announcements (e.g., policies, deadlines, important University-wide news) begin with "Notice:" and be followed by a short description of the announcement.  The "Subject" line of the e-mail for information or "promotional" purposes (e.g., events, awards) says "Info:" and is followed by a short description. The policy includes the following:

 

A. Mandatory e-mails will be sent to an entire employee category if

     approved by the data custodian for that category (e.g., Human

     Resources for employees, Provost's office for faculty, all categories

     of employees if e-mail is from President's office). Third-party

     information will be verified before sending.

 

B. Mandatory e-mails will be sent to all employees in their units

     if approved by the unit head.

 

C. Mandatory e-mail to committees and other groups will be sent if

     the committee chair creates a distribution list.

 

D. E-Veritas will go to everyone (and all other Exchange

     announcements will be handled through e-Veritas instead of

     via separate e-mails).  E-Veritas will, for the immediate future,

     continue to be a text-based e-mail with links to Web sites.

 

E. Web-based versions of important communications will be archived

     indefinitely on the University's Web site so that there is a

     permanent electronic record to which employees can refer at a

     later time rather than having to print and file the e-mail

     communications.

 

F. Opt-in distribution lists and announcements on the UM Web site

     will be used for all non-mandatory e-mail communications.  IT will

     provide a Web page with a comprehensive list of opt-in distribution

     lists for non-mandatory communications.  Individuals who opt to

     join a distribution list will receive an e-mail confirmation. New

     voluntary distribution lists will be announced in e-Veritas

     as they are created.

 

III. Information Technology has implemented the following process for distributing e-mail: 

 

A. The long-term solution is a single broadcast to a master

     distribution list of preferred e-mail addresses. This approach has

     the advantage of avoiding redundancy and supporting generic

     addresses more easily.  The problems with this approach are that

     distribution lists potentially produce a large volume of e-mails at

     one time that could create problems for some systems and

     networks and, until accurate e-mail records are on file for

     everyone with e-mail accounts, a distribution list would not reach

     everyone except via the generic e-mail route.  A timed release of

     a master distribution list might help solve volume problems, and

     increasing the number of addresses on HRS and improving

     accuracy would solve the coverage problem. This approach is

     the preferred solution, although a transition to this approach

     may take time.

 

B. In the short term (and the existing solution), IT will continue to

     mail announcements to all e-mail administrators, who in turn will

     send them to everyone on their own systems. Problems with this

     approach include duplicate e-mails, lack of e-mail administrator

     response (not forwarding messages in a timely manner), and

     lack of e-mail administrator participation (not registering to

     participate in this process).  This approach does address

     concerns with network traffic and e-mail systems performance.