Policies and Guidelines for
Sending Bulk E-mail at NYU

Information Technology Services has a strong interest in promoting the proper utilization of email at NYU. When used at its best, email is a powerful tool for conducting business swiftly, without generating large amounts of paper. If misused, however, email can generate significant negative reactions that do not normally occur with bulk mail on paper. Even worse, NYU can become victimized by commercial activities or individuals with malicious intent; this can threaten the orderly running of the University's computing services.

E-mail Direct is an evolving ITS service for NYU faculty and administrators. It requires advance authorization, which can be obtained by sending email to email.direct@nyu.edu. With this background in mind, ITS offers authorized NYU employees the following guidelines and recommendations for directing email to groups at NYU.

Using NYU E-mail Direct

For sending bulk email, please use NYU E-mail Direct. E-mail Direct will ensure that email lists are kept confidential, systems are properly scheduled for orderly delivery, bounced email and other anomalies are handled in a structured environment, and that mailings are coordinated across the University. For each E-mail Direct mailing, you need to provide the following information:

• the name and address from whom the email will be sent
• the subject of the email
• the text of the email
• a selection from predefined groups of individuals who will get the email (e.g., all CAS freshmen) and, optionally, a list of addresses that you possess or generate from a database extract

Note that you supply all of this information via our Web frontend. E-mail Direct is a fully web-based application. To use NYU E-mail Direct, go to the E-mail Direct submit page.

Sending E-mail to a Group

For lists of any substantial size, you must conceal the names on the list. Displaying the recipients (failing to conceal the list) has several problems: it reveals the addresses of individuals who might not want their addresses broadcast; it makes it possible for the various recipients to reply to all the original recipients, which can have a snowball effect; it makes it possible to mistakenly reply to the entire list instead of just the sender; and it allows unscrupulous individuals to collect and redistribute NYU email addresses, particularly to commercial parties outside NYU targeting NYU students. Remember that once a list becomes public via your email, there is no way to get it back.

The easiest way to prevent those receiving the email from seeing the other recipients is to put the list of addresses in the "Blind cc" (Bcc) field in your email software. You may leave the "To" field blank. In addition to using the "Blind cc" field, you may want to set a "Reply-to" field (sets an address for recipients to reply to) and have the capability of setting the "From" field. Eudora Pro and Pine are two good email programs that have these capabilities.

Help and Additional Information

For assistance with E-mail Direct, visit the About E-mail Direct page, or send email to email.direct@nyu.edu BEFORE you send the mail. After the mail is sent, it will be difficult or impossible to correct errors!

Page last reviewed: August 19, 2008