E-Communications
Students, faculty, and staff have a variety of electronic communications tools available to them: traditional email, System Distribution List emails (for official College business) and HartLink.
System Distribution List Messages
Hartwick College has email system distribution lists for sending to students (ZHDListStudents), faculty (ZHDListFaculty), and staff (ZHDListStaff). The College’s Technology Resources User Responsibilities and Appropriate Use Policy serves as the guideline for the use of system distribution lists.
System Distribution List Messages are campus-wide email messages which pertain to Hartwick business or emergency communications only. Permission to send to the lists is restricted to faculty, staff, and authorized departmental accounts. Faculty members may send to ZHDListFaculty, and staff members may send to ZHDListStaff. Any other use requires sending from a departmental account, not an individual’s account. Department heads should approve campus-wide email sent from the departmental address to ensure that it complies with new and existing policies. Students who wish to send announcements or messages to system distribution lists must follow the System DLM guidelines below and must also contact the Director of Student Activities for review, approval, and sending from an authorized departmental account.
If your area needs a departmental address (after checking with your department head to see whether one already exists), please complete the account request form.
- pertain to legitimate college business (e.g., events, meetings, etc.). Personal or commercial messages (e.g, items for sale/rent, opinions, etc.) are not a legitimate use of the lists.
- be announcements of interest to the individuals to whom it is sent
- adhere to the guidelines of the Hartwick College Technology Resources User Responsibilities and Appropriate Use Policy
- be used for announcements only and should not be used as discussion lists.
- Avoid attachments if you want your message to be seen. Many users, even if they know you, avoid opening attachments due to legitimate concerns about viruses embedded in attached documents.
- If you must use an image or attachment, keep the total size to less than 2 mb.
- If you need to send a large document or a document with graphics to the system distribution lists, consider these alternatives:
- Convert your document to Adobe PDF format
- Create or modify your office or departmental webpages on Hartwick’s website using WordPress, and send a link to your webpage in your email message.
If you need assistance with creating a PDF document, please contact the Technology Resource Center at x4357. If a faculty or a staff member in your office or department needs training to create, edit and publish webpages using WordPress, please contact the Web Administrator in Information Technology.
All system distribution list messages must have the subject title “System DLM – [enter what your announcement is about]”. For example, a system distribution list message about a change in traffic patterns on campus would have the following subject title: “System DLM – Planned Traffic Re-Routing”.
To inform recipients not to reply to the entire list when their response is intended for the sender, all system distribution list messages must have the following text inserted at the beginning of the message: “If you need to reply, please reply to the sender only”.
If you want to reply to the sender of a message to a system distribution list, use the “Reply” feature, NOT the “Reply All” feature. Using “Reply All” will send your reply to everyone who received the original message, which may not be appropriate and could clog the email system.
In the “To:” field, type the name of the system distribution list that you wish to use. To send to more than one distribution list, send a separate message to each.
Appropriate list names:
- For all Students: [email protected]
- For all Faculty: [email protected]
- For all Staff: [email protected]
If you put the list address in the “BCC” field instead of the “To” field, it will prevent recipients from replying to the list.
Send the message as you would any other email message – with the subject and text entered as outlined above. Unless extenuating circumstances require a follow-up message, only one well written message should be sent to the system distribution lists per event/announcement.
Two pieces of information will help you to identify a system distribution list message in your Inbox. When you open a system distribution list message, the “To” field will say “ZHDLIST…” and the subject field should start with “System DLM…”. If your Inbox view is configured to preview messages, you should see “ZHDLIST…” and “System DLM…”. For help in configuring your Inbox view, contact the Technology Resource Center at x4357.
Tips:
- Spend the time to get your announcement right the first time! Focus on what your intended audience needs to know (times, dates, locations, alternate plans in case of inclement weather, etc). You probably have only one good chance to grab your audience’s attention, and a poorly written message with errors will annoy rather than motivate your audience. Subsequent messages to correct errors are an unnecessary burden on your audience and the e-mail system.
- Timing is important. Keep in mind that not everyone checks his or her e-mail every day (or on weekends and holidays). Give readers adequate time to receive your message and to make plans.
- If your message is intended for a smaller, defined group of recipients, do not send it to an entire distribution list. Take the time to identify and specify the exact recipients.
- Whenever possible, put your message in straight text in the body of the email, not as an attachment. Many users will not open an attachment because it is an extra step or because of the danger of attachments infected with viruses .
- Use the subject line to say what the message is about – probably a date and time for an event. Users should be able to know what the communication is about by simply reading the subject line.
The College Cabinet has endorsed the use of these system distribution lists for disseminating legitimate College business, including distribution of agendas, meeting minutes, invitations, and announcements (emergencies, system outages, event schedule changes, and College closings). The Cabinet’s endorsement occurred because of the benefits, including improved timeliness of message delivery, opportunities for improved communication, and potential for paper savings.
Experiences at other institutions indicate that, over time, community self-policing results in appropriate use of system distribution list capabilities and a manageable number of messages being sent. Feedback from members of the community to an individual sender regarding inappropriate messages often causes the individual to think twice before sending another system distribution list message.
Please direct questions to the Technology Resource Center at x4357 or email to: [email protected].
HartLink
HartLink is Hartwick’s event calendar, virtual bulletin board, and student organization management tool all rolled into one.
Learn MoreINFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Clark Hall
Hartwick College
Oneonta, New York