Campus Announcements are now compiled and distributed through LU's Weekly Update each week.
The use of “all faculty,” “all staff,” and “students,” either on campus, online or both, email distribution lists (or any combination of the groups) will be restricted to email messages that can be reasonably expected to be of interest and/or of importance to a majority of the individuals in those large targeted audiences. Messages of interest and/or of importance only for smaller subgroups within those distribution lists must be sent by the message originator to those subgroup members.
State of Texas policies are clear that state resources should be used only for official business. Email is considered one of those resources. The purpose of the email must be specifically about the business of the university in order to be transmitted via mass email. This applies to programs such as camps held on campus and activities supporting external agencies. Even if Lamar University is a sponsor -- or if a student organization is involved -- the event must benefit the educational purpose of LU in order to be marketed via mass email.
The CAN-SPAM Act sets the rules for email communications and spells out penalties for violations. Mass email messages from Lamar University fall within the realm of the act because Lamar University emails can be forwarded to other ISPs. Faculty, staff and students may not opt out of the mass emails, thus emails must comply with the CAN SPAM act. Among other restrictions, the CAN SPAM Act states that messages may not include solicitations for money (either direct contributions or to purchase a product or service).
All communications must follow the President's directive for a unified marketing approach and meet the below requirements:
Messages approved at the first level should be directed to John Rollins, Associate Director Community Relations & Public Affairs at john.rollins@lamar.edu.
Deans and Vice Presidents (or delegates):
In order for all users to easily access content in mass emails, we must abide by certain guidelines.