Mailing List Policy

Effective Date: October, 2022

Last Revised: October, 2022

Overview

The University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) Mailing List service is administered and supported by Information Technology Services for the benefit of the University community. University email service is an information resource as defined in Regents’ Policy and Regulation on Information Resources 02.07.020-094 for conducting UA business and will be managed as such. Data residing in said information resources are UA records and are classified and governed as an information/record asset per R02.07.092 and subject to retention under policy and regulation 05.08.022.

• 1.0 Purpose
  • 1.1 Scope
• 2.0 Policies
  • 2.1 Appropriate Use
  • 2.2 List Requirements
  • 2.3 List Owner
  • 2.4 Transfer of List Ownership
  • 2.5 Official University Lists
  • 2.6 Data Retention
  • 2.7 List Removal
• 3.0 Related Policies
• 4.0 Policy History
• Additional Information

1.0 Purpose

1.1 Scope

Mailing list owners must agree to the following polices when applying for, and using a mailing list, and understand that improper use of any software, password, account, or data may result in disciplinary action including termination of computing privileges, civil, or criminal prosecution, employee termination, and/or expulsion.

All mailing list usage is subject to university's Electronic Mail Policy. Mailing lists may be used for legitimate purposes related to teaching, course-work, research, administration, and university sanctioned student activities. Commercial use of mailing lists, except for authorized university business is prohibited.

2.0 Policies

This policy is subordinate to all other University of Alaska (UA) Board of Regents, and University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) IT policies.

2.1 Appropriate use

• Online conduct, including use of email, is governed by UA policy including P02.07.050 and institutional codes of conduct.
• Individuals communicating internationally may be subject to the laws of other countries.
• Mass distribution of email via distribution lists or other features of email may only be used for legitimate purposes per guidelines established by each University.
• University resources including email may not be used for partisan political purposes. (See AS 39.52.120(b)(6).)
• Users may not share passwords (per R02.07.051(G)).
• An email message from a university account is considered to be an official notice, and can constitute an electronic signature for internal processes.

2.2 List Requirements

• Every mailing list will have at least one University of Alaska owner (e.g. staff, faculty), or a group of owners who will be actively involved in managing the mailing list.
• All lists must have a defined purpose. A list without a defined purpose (this can be placed in the list's info field) may be subject to being shutdown without notice based on general verifiable complaints.
• Spam mailing and/or repeated verifiable off-topic postings are potential grounds for removal from any and all mailing lists, including list ownership.
• The Mailing list service is not to be used for general bulk mailings, nor one-time use lists.
• All Mailing Lists hosted by the university may be examined by IT Services support, and engineering staff.
• IT Services does not monitor the system for content; however, we will respond to complaints from list members if/as necessary.
• In situations where the list is interfering with normal operations of computer systems or network, IT Services will notify the owner. IT Services will shutdown the list if the problem is not correct promptly.

2.3 List Owner

The list owner is responsible for maintaining the list on a day-by-day basis. They are also the point of contact regarding membership requests, or issues with the list. Responsibilities for list owner(s) include, but are not limited to:

• The list owner will notify IT Services Technical Support Center of any changes of their status, including affiliation with the university, change of office, phone numbers, and so on.
• Owners are accountable for maintaining compliance with UAA policies, and Board of Regents Policy and need to report violations to the appropriate authorities. If you are unsure who the appropriate authorities are, please send email to uaa.techsupport@alaska.edu.
• Owners need to monitor the list and make sure that the content of the communications is within the purview of the intended purposes of the list as declared during the creation of the list.
• Owners are responsible for maintaining applicable list subscription, sender, recipient, and spam filters in support of the list's intended audience/purpose.
• Owners are responsible for providing first-level support to list subscribers. This includes assistance with subscribing to, and unsubscribing from lists, and responding to questions about list policy and purpose.
• Owners must maintain the list, track down address changes, remove subscribers who violate list guidelines, and remove addresses causing mail loops.
• Owners need to respond quickly to communications from IT Services.
• Owners need to assign an alternate owner who must monitor the list if the primary owner is unable to do so for more than two days.
• Owners need to inform IT Services Technical Support Center when the list is no longer needed so that it may be deleted.
• In the event that a list is running without a list owner, due to a retirement or re-location, IT Services will contact the sponsoring department/organization to identify a new owner. If a new owner is not identified within two weeks, there is no alternative then to have the list shutdown.

2.4 Transfer of List Ownership

The current list owner may add additional list owners, or transfer their ownership completely to another UA staff, or faculty without involvement, or approval from UAA IT Services. The owner(s) must meet the requirements and assume the responsibilities of list ownership as outlined above. If the current list owner needs assistance with transfer, the should submit a request to UAA IT Services using the applicable Mailman form, and provide the requisite information regarding the list name and new owner(s) contact information.

In the event that a list owner has left the University and therefore is no longer able to make this request, a person of authority may submit a request to IT Services regarding the transfer. For student-related lists, that authority should be a faculty, or staff member who serves a a sponsor or adviser to the group. For an employee (i.e. faculty/staff) related list, it should be the Manager or Director of the department or organization served by the list.

IT Services will verify the legitimacy of the request, and will notify the new owner when the change has been completed.

2.5 Official University Lists

The University of Alaska Anchorage currently maintains several lists for faculty, staff, and students relating to either Major Administrative Unit (MAU) (e.g. "uaa community", "uaa faculty", "uaa staff", etc.), as well as geographical related (e.g. "uaa anc students", "uaa msc students", etc.) groups. These lists are official in that they are derived directly from information retrieved from Banner. These lists are typically referred to as dynamic mailing lists whose membership information is updated nightly based upon the specified criteria for that list, there is no "opt-out" mechanism for these lists. These lists are intended for broad distribution of timely official University announcements and information. List owners of official university lists may designate employees (hopefully limited to a few) who have access to post to these lists. These designated employees are also empowered to approve requests to use these lists. Decisions to release a post should be made consistent with the following guidelines:

• Timeliness of the message should be considered; is it "urgent" or can it be distributed by other means (e.g. Green & Gold, Web, etc)
• The message should be of broad interest to the target list audience.
• All messages must carry a definite and appropriate "from" address as well as an appropriate "reply-to" address (if different).

2.6 Data Retention

List owner(s) are responsible for ensuring that emails transmitted through their list(s) which data fall under UA's data retention requirements are transferred to secure, persistent, shared repository so that they can be located, accessed, and deleted per the retention schedule. For additional information review UA records governance and records retention schedule.

2.7 List Removal

Mailing lists are reviewed annually for activity and continued conformance to these policies. Lists that meet one, or more of the following criteria will be deleted:

• List has not been used (e.g. no new message posted/sent) within the last two (2) years
• List has never been used (i.e. no messages ever posted/sent) will be deleted when they are at least one (1) year old
• List has no active UA staff, faculty, or department sponsor

List owner(s) will be contacted by IT Services prior to the removal of the list. If an owner is unable to be contacted, the list will be removed.

A list owner may also request a list be removed. Requests to delete lists that come from someone other than a current (active) list owner will be referred to the current list owner. if a list has multiple owners IT Services will normally act on requests from any owner; however, at its sole discretion may contact all of the list's owners to ensure that all are in agreement with the request to delete the list.

3.0 Related Policies

• UAA Electronic Mail Policy
• UA Board of Regents Policy & Regulation on Information Resources

4.0 Policy History

Additional information

Additional information regarding best practices, how-to guides, and other information is available within Mailing List section of the UAA Service Portal knowledge base.

Need additional help or have issues

For support, requests may be submitted anytime by Requesting Support for the Mailman service. Support Requests are worked by Priority based on the Impact and Urgency of need as well as the order they are received by the IT Employees with the knowledge and permissions to assist with the request.

For immediate assistance please review the Contact Us page for ways to contact the appropriate support group.