Mass email guidelines

University Communications (UC) has assumed responsibility for distributing campus-wide broadcast email messages (“mass emails”, “blast emails”) to faculty and staff. This service is provided to the campus on behalf of the university’s administration. 

The guidelines attempt to strike a balance between the speed and ease of use of mass email, the desire to reduce reliance on paper-based mail where appropriate, and the impact on each member of the university community receiving email messages on a daily basis, with common sense as a guiding factor.

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Categories of mass email

Mass emails generally take two forms:

Official messages from the university’s senior administration 

These official messages may come from the university’s administration or its representatives, to be sent to the entire university community. 

Example: The President’s Quarterly Community Update

Informational messages to the university community 

Various on-campus organizations may request to send a mass email to the university community. These emails must be pertinent to the university community’s shared interests. 

Examples: Town Hall Meeting reminders, Co-operative Education Council requests for WatPD course designs

When messages being distributed to employees are determined to be of significance to students as well, UC will work with the Registrar’s Office and/or the Graduate Studies Office to see that the same message is distributed to student audiences in a timely way.

Exclusions

Messages directed to all faculty members by the Office of the Provost or another vice-president, associate provost, or associate vice-president, regarding the academic work of the university will be sent directly by those offices to appropriate mailing lists without the direct involvement of University Communications.

Human Resources will continue to send its messages directly to the appropriate employee group.

Mass emails to undergraduate students are delivered by the Registrar’s Office. Visit the Registrar Resources for Faculty and Staff website for instructions on requests to send a mass email (requires CAS login).

Mass messages to graduate students are sent through the Graduate Students e-newsletter. Guidelines for sending messages and the e-newsletter submission tool are available on the Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs (GSPA)'s website. Questions should be sent to Communications Officer Tasha Glover at tmglover@uwaterloo.ca.

Requests for messages to postdoctoral fellows should be sent to Marta Bailey, Assistant Director, Graduate Communications & Postdoctoral Affairs, at marta@uwaterloo.ca.

Requests for campus-wide surveys should be directed to Daniela Seskar-Hencic, Associate Director, Institutional Analysis and Planning, at dseskarhencic@uwaterloo.ca and Jana Carson, Manager, Institutional Evaluation & Accountability, Institutional Analysis and Planning, at jana.carson@uwaterloo.ca.

These guidelines do not apply to individual email-based distribution or Faculty and department-level discussion groups (listservs).

Sending a mass email 

Requests for distribution of a campus-wide message should be directed to the mass email moderator, Brandon Sweet, Associate Director, Internal Communications.

The moderator consults with the email author to determine whether mass email is the appropriate communication channel for the message and may suggest one of the following alternatives:

• An announcement provided to the Daily Bulletin
• An event post on the UWaterloo Events Calendar
• A call to action button (CTA) on the future student, faculty and staff pathway pages on the university’s website
• The University of Waterloo’s official Twitter account

The moderator will also ensure that multiple messages are not sent on the same day unless absolutely necessary, so as not to create overload on system infrastructure or for email recipients.

Distribution list options for UC-moderated mass faculty and staff emails

The list normally used for messages distributed by UC is employees@uwaterloo.ca, which includes all employees at the University of Waterloo and the colleges, both faculty and staff, union and non-union, with appointments of one year or longer, including all people active in the pay groups listed below:

• FAC - Faculty
• STF – Staff
• BW – Regular biweekly
• BWP – Plant Ops biweekly
• TEM – Temporary
• CAS - Casual

General exclusions

The following staff segments are not included in mass emails sent using the employees@uwaterloo.ca address:

• Joint University Faculty (not paid by UWaterloo)
• Daycare staff
• Accelerator Centre staff
• Canadian Water Network (CWN) staff
• Undergraduate students with no pay.

Lead-time requirements

University Communications requires a lead time of two business days to evaluate, approve, and send out mass emails from the UC-moderated email lists.

Formatting mass emails

All messages will conform to a mass email template [DOC] that includes:

• The university signature
• A from field that clearly indicates the name and title of the university official sending the message
• The name of the office or individual issuing the memorandum
• A subject line
• Notation indicating whether the email message is for action or for information
• A notation at the close of the message such as “Supervisors, please post for the convenience of employees without direct email access.”

Messages are to be sent as text along with the university signature. Other attachments (documents, etc.) are not permitted.

Based on the limitations of the mailman system:

• Message text must be submitted in a Word document
• No tabs, indentations, superscripts, or footnotes can be used
• All messages will be edited and fact/spell-checked by the sender prior to submission

For more information about issues such as privacy, please refer to the Guidelines for use of email.

Mass email content guidelines

Headings

Provide a heading for each paragraph that clearly indicates what each paragraph is about. Headings help readers scan memos. Headings also help you write clear memos by encouraging you to ensure that each paragraph conveys a required point and stays on topic.

Lists

Use bulleted or numbered lists for lists of items instead of embedding lists in paragraphs. Lists embedded in paragraphs are hard for readers to easily read.

Reserve numbered lists (or ordered lists) for procedural or instructional information.

Example: Complete the following steps:

1. Step one description
2. Step two description

Links

Use meaningful link text when using hyperlinks in emails. Ensure link text specifies the destination of link and is not meaningless (e.g. "click here", "here", "more").

Avoid: “Click here to fill out the survey.”

Use: “Please fill out the survey.”

Bold and italics

Bold and italics should be used sparingly to draw the email reader’s attention.

For example: "The application deadline is April 1, 2012. Applications received after the deadline will not be considered."

Large blocks of bold and italicized text impede readability and lose the effect of emphasizing important information.

Underlining

Reserve underlining for only hyperlinked text (i.e. link text). In electronic communications, readers expect underlined text to behave as a hyperlink.

All caps

Avoid using ALL CAPS. It is generally accepted that all caps convey shouting at the reader.

Alignment

Left align all of your content to help your readers read your memo more efficiently. Left alignment means readers’ eyes only need to scan up and down – versus centered alignment, where readers eyes need to scan right and left, and up and down.