E-mail: Broadcast and Mass Mailing

Mass Communicating Using E-mail

• LISTSERV    (LISTSERV: LSU Overview)

The officially sanctioned methods of communicating with a large number of users are through listserv mailing lists and the Broadcast facility. In addition, various administrative units send official messages to targeted individuals through applications running on the University administrative computer.

LSU offers listserv services for faculty, staff, departments and organizations that need to correspond with a small group of people. Membership in a listserv should not exceed 500 and is maintained by a designated list owner.
 

• Broadcast    (LSU Guidelines for Sending Broadcast E-mails)

The Broadcast facility provides bulk mailing capabilities for departments. Broadcast groups are culled from student records and human resource data. They target a larger audience than that of a listserv.

This service is restricted to important announcements that need to be emailed to a large portion of the LSU community. Because of the load these large mailings have on the system resources, requests to use Broadcast by individuals must be granted and administered through the Office of Academic Affairs. Departments that need to perform regular Broadcasts should contact Information Technology Services.
 

Important Information

All other mass mailings initiated by individuals are not under the governance of LSU. Users who send bulk mailings which use the resources of LSU should be aware of the following facts:

1. Recipients may construe the messages as spam and report the incident to anti-spam organizations. This can often lead to the blocking of LSU email servers from delivering messages to the internet.

2. LSU reserves the right to monitor, mitigate and even stop the mailings if they produce adverse effects on the email system and network resources.

3. Bulk mailings should honor the federal and state laws governing spam.