ITS: Email Guidelines
All employees are expected to use email for college business communications. See the Electronic Mail Policy for the email code of conduct.
Mass Email Procedures
Mass (bulk) email is to be sent only by authorized employees to promote appropriate college business announcements to employees and/or students. Employees are authorized by Colleague data custodians in consultation with ITS.
For those who are authorized to conduct such mailings:
- It is recommended that emails be sent in batches of 200-500 at a time.
- It is preferred that they be sent out at a time with less email traffic, but during business hours.
- Communications to students should be coordinated to minimize over-saturation of messages from the college.
- Emails to students should usually be sent from a departmental email accounts (i.e., enrollmentservices@ccac.edu).
- Department staff must assume responsibility for: replying to messages, managing undeliverables and updating student records, and managing/archiving their mailbox.
There are two efficient ways to send mass email:
- Word Email Merge: best for sending attractive messages to large groups of identified email recipients.
- Communications Management in Datatel: best for sending automated routine communication to students or other persons whose records exist in Datatel. This method will require training and setup.
IMPORTANT: If you plan to email over 1000 recipients, you must consult with the ServiceDesk manager. Mailings to students must also be approved by the Assistant Dean of Academic Management. Once approved, you must follow guidelines outlined by the college for:
Best practices with mass mailings
Related FTC spam regulations:
The CAN-SPAM Act: A Compliance Guide for Business
Email Marketers Must Honor "Unsubscribe" Claims
How to share large documents via email
If you need to promote activities or share documents with a large constituency, please follow these guidelines:
- First, make sure that the document itself is not over-sized. Check images and pictures; these can be saved in web-friendly, smaller formats. Need help with this? Contact the ServiceDesk.
- Rather than add attachments that can add significant file size and put a strain on college email systems, provide a link to your content on the web:
- Create a page on the CCAC website, using the CMS (Content Management System).
- Upload your file to the CMS system, and create a link to the file on your CMS webpage.
- Send your email announcement with a simple message with the link to the webpage. (Do not link to the document, since the URL of the document will change if the document is updated.)
- Need help? Contact the webteam@ccac.edu.
Email Etiquette
Are you in tune with the proper do's and don'ts of electronic communication? Check out these sites.