• E-mail Lists FAQ

Campus E-mail List Policy

Revision: January 9, 2009

The Webster University Web & E-Services Advisory Council has created the following policy to facilitate an understanding of the proper venue for faculty and staff postings to campus-wide e-mail lists.

The objective of this policy is to provide a forum for online dialogue and expression that protects free speech, as well as a practical means of disseminating announcements that are necessary for the operational effectiveness of the University.

The following policy is inherently dynamic and will be periodically reviewed and modified to meet the evolving needs of the Webster University community.

Two primary e-mail lists are available for St. Louis area faculty and staff at Webster University: a campus announcement list, and a discussion list.

St. Louis Announcement List

The St. Louis Announcement list (stl-announcements@lists.webster.edu) is reserved for the dissemination of University-related announcements. Faculty and staff in the St. Louis area are automatically added to this list upon their hire and are not able to opt out of this list.

Only Webster University administration, faculty, and staff may post messages to this list. Students may post upon permission of the list owner.

The list is moderated by the Office of Public Affairs to ensure postings are consistent with the guidelines stated here. While every effort will be made to post messages in a timely fashion, members should allow a minimum of 24 hours for a message to be published during the work week and potentially longer over the weekend and on holidays. Please plan accordingly when you are posting event notifications.

The following topics are appropriate items to be posted to the St. Louis Announcement list:

• Announcements of University events sponsored by an administrative division, academic department, committee or program, faculty governance, student organization, student governance, or student service division. Announcements of University events should list time, location, and sponsor only.
• Announcements of faculty reviews
• Announcements of University policy changes
• Operational announcements (closings, changes of hours, outages and planned maintenance)
• Emergency announcements
• Announcements from the Executive Office or from a Vice Presidential Office
• Announcements of the availability of, or corrections to, University publications, including course schedule changes
• Announcements of the death of a student, an employee, or the spouse or child of an employee. The subject line "Sad News" will be used so that those who do not wish to receive such messages can filter them out.

The following topics are not appropriate for the St. Louis Announcement list:

• Announcements of a personal nature (e.g., birth announcements, fundraisers not related to a University organization).
• Discussions (these are appropriate for the St. Louis Discussion list).
• Professional achievements
• Commercial use of the list by individuals (e.g., the sale of belongings or services, advertisements, or links to websites promoting a personal business). Announcements of fundraisers for official University organizations are permitted.

Any posts that do not meet the criteria for inclusion on the St. Louis Announcement list will be rejected and the sender will be asked to resubmit their message to the discussion list.

St. Louis Discussion List

The St. Louis Discussion list (stl-discussion@lists.webster.edu) is a forum for discussion of topics that interest members of the University community. Faculty and staff in the St. Louis area may join or opt out of this list by following instructions in the footer of each message. Only Webster University administration, faculty, and staff may post messages to this list. Students may post upon permission of the list owner.

Although the St. Louis Discussion list is not moderated, these items are inappropriate for the Discussion list:

• Commercial use of the list by individuals (e.g., the sale of belongings or services, advertisements, or links to websites promoting a personal business).
• Posts that violate Webster University policies are not permitted.

Because the  St. Louis Discussion list is not moderated, there is no prior restraint on inappropriate messages posted to the list. Members should report policy infractions to the list owner rather than to the entire list.

Exceptions and Policy Violations

Members of the  St. Louis Announcements list may petition the Web Advisory Council to be removed from the list. Webster University retirees may remain subscribed to the lists with the permission of the Vice President under whom they served.

Individuals who violate the rules for acceptable use of the  St. Louis Discussion list will be given one warning; future violations may result in the suspension of posting privileges to the list.

The list owner will consult with the appropriate administrative, faculty, and staff members before taking any of the following actions: withholding a posting from both lists based on content, addressing complaints from members of the list about another's posting(s), warning a member about inappropriate use of the list, or banning a member from the list.

A list member who violates this policy may have his or her posting privileges temporarily suspended while the list owner makes the necessary consultations specified above.

Drafted by Mike Hulsizer, Pete McEwen, and Will Godfrey, December 2002
Approved by the Web Advisory Council December 12, 2002
Approved by the Administrative Council December 17, 2002
Amended by the Web/E-Services Committee December 10, 2004
Updated by Office of Public Affairs August 23, 2007
Updated by Office of Public Affairs January 9, 2009