Occasionally, it is necessary to inform a large group of people via e-mail. And we offer different ways to do that depending on your needs.

For example, if you are just sending an e-mail to a specific group, you could send a bulk e-mail.

Or, maybe you want to create a listserv of individuals in and outside the university with similar interests/duties so you can send them periodic e-mails.

Or, maybe you want to create an exchange distribution group (which is similar to a listserv but when all members have a UC e-mail address).

Bulk E-Mail

Bulk e-mail enables you to share important information quickly with faculty, staff and students.  

Sending Bulk E-mail to Students

We don’t want to bombard our students, so we ask that you only send bulk e-mail for important university notices. Per the university's Mass Communication Policy, those requesting approval should fall within one of the following categories:

• Crisis or emergency or both
• Changes to policies or standard operating procedures or both
• Official UC communications (e.g., registration information, deadlines for students)
• Official solicitations (e.g., nominations for official UC awards, grants, campaigns)

As a safeguard, all bulk e-mail requests must be approved by the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs. To initiate the approval process, please fill out the Mass Mailings to UC Students form. Note that any message intended for more than 1000 recipients must also be approved by UCIT E-Mail Services. This is required to insure that the production e-mail systems are not adversely affected during such mass mailings.

Sending Bulk E-Mail to Faculty/Staff Members

For a bulk e-mail directed to faculty and/or staff, please send an e-mail request to technician@uc.edu. Your message should contain the text, who the e-mail is from (valid e-mail address), and a list of intended recipients. Bulk e-mail requests should be related to UC business and requested at least seven (7) business days in advance.

Listserv

A listserv is a good option for repeated correspondence with a certain group of people. The UC listserv has built-in throttling to ensure that the university e-mail systems are not overwhelmed by any mass communications being sent. Owners of the lists (who typically requested the lists to begin with) can authorize mailings themselves; no pre-approval by UCIT E-Mail Services is required once a list is established.

Any third party applications which are developed to automate the distribution of e-mail to the university as a whole must be authorized by UCIT E-Mail Services prior to deployment.

Visit our listserv page for frequequently asked questions about listservs.

Exchange Distribution Lists

Exchange distribution lists can be created to send e-mail to more than one person using a single e-mail address. They appear in the Global Address List in Exchange, and have a publicly-available e-mail address. These lists can be maintained by a list owner.

To request the creation of a distribution list, please send an e-mail to technician@uc.edu and include the following:

• list name
• short description
• list owner
• (optional) list of the e-mail addresses that should be members of the group.