Student Announcement Guidelines

 

Instead of sending individual email messages to student email users about University activities and events, all such news items are consolidated at one easy-to-find location, Personal Announcements, accessible from within ForUM.  (Note that mission critical messages will continue to be sent via ForUM email to students as well as being posted in Personal Announcements.

News items should pertain to University of Montevallo activities and events that involve students.

These items should be of significant nature that warrants their posting in ForUM's Personal Announcements  Topics such as garage sales and chain letters are not considered significant. Messages that are not significant will be returned to the authors if possible.

It is up to the message author to distribute messages to faculty and staff via other channels (such as Outlook email and paper memorandum) on their own.

When requesting a news item be posted in ForUM's Personal Announcements (or, in the case of mission critical messages that are also to be sent via ForUM email), please send the pertinent information to broadcast@montevallo.edu using a University email account with 2 to 3 business days advance notice for Computer Services to receive and post the message.  Since ForUM postings require start and end dates, be sure to include this information with your news item.  If they are not received, your posting will be delayed pending receipt. 

Emergency news items/mission critical messages should be followed-up with a phone call to Computer Services to minimize any delay. Emergency news items/messages can also be called in to Computer Services.

News items should contain the general WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY or HOW. In addition, they must contain a phone number or email address the recipients can reply to if they have questions or comments.  The information to be posted should be included in the body of an email message, not as an attachment to the email.  Graphics, such as pictures and clip art, cannot be posted in Personal Announcements.  This also applies to mission critical messages.

The final decision as to whether a news item will be posted (and, in the case of mission critical messages, distributed via email) is the responsibility of the Director of Computer Services. The news items will be posted (and, in the case of mission critical messages, distributed) to all students without editing. The content, spelling and grammar are the responsibility of the original author. Computer Services will not edit the messages.

If there are specific instructions, these should be identified in the text preceding the news item. If these instructions are not to be seen by students, then they should be phoned in prior to sending the message to Computer Services.  The text of the news item should also be identified separately.

For mission critical messages, every student is automatically placed in the group that includes them in the email distribution of such messages.  This is a privilege included with the access of the computer system and electronic mail. Student announcements posted in ForUM's Personal Announcements and those sent via ForUM Email are for the benefit of all students.

Please direct any questions about these procedures to the Office of Computer Services, (205) 665-6512 between the hours of 8:00 am and 5:00 pm Monday - Friday.

 

Updated October 2008