OIT provides bulk email lists for distribution of critical messages related to safety, health and campus operations. There are two types of bulk lists on campus. Essential lists are reserved for mandatory content for the University community and managed lists to communicate non-essential content to the appropriate audience.
Bulk Email Lists
mylists.smu.edu
Getting Started with Bulk Lists
Essential Email Lists
There are currently four mandatory campus lists. Only approved senders are able to send content through the following lists:
| Staff: | Includes all benefit-eligible and part-time employees that are not also Instructors. |
|---|---|
| Faculty: | Includes anyone that is marked as an Instructor except for Teaching Assistants and Academic Advisors. |
| Graduate: | Includes all students in a graduate-level program. |
| Undergraduate: | Includes all enrolled undergraduate students. |
Please Note:
All current faculty, staff, and students are included in these distribution lists. Membership is mandatory. Membership is maintained through official my.SMU records and the Account Maintenance Automation process.Retired faculty and staff can elect to remain part of these lists after retirement by contacting the IT Help Desk. Faculty and staff can also request inclusion in other essential distribution lists by contacting the IT Help Desk.
Approved Senders for Essential Lists
OIT maintains the list of departments that are authorized to send emails to the essential lists. These departments send critical messages related to safety, health, and campus operations.
Message Size Limits
The student lists are restricted to 300 KB. Messages sent to the Faculty and Staff lists are restricted to 2 MB.
Message Content
Notifications sent to the lists must be appropriate for the target audience and include critical content related to safety, health, and campus operations.
Managed Email Lists
Departments may request a managed list to send information about upcoming events, programming, or other information to appropriate audiences. These messages do not meet the requirements for the essential lists; therefore, recipients can unsubscribe from receiving messages from these lists.
Request a managed list
Managed lists can be requested by contacted IT Help Desk.
Update Your Subscription Preferences
Individuals may opt-out (or back into) any of the managed lists by visiting mylists.smu.edu or clicking the Sign In button above. After you log in to mylists.smu.edu, you can view all lists to which are subscribed or eligible to subscribe. Select or deselect the box next to each list and then click Submit your changes to update your subscription.
Students, staff, and retirees are resubscribed to all lists at the beginning of each academic year. After that, students and staff can adjust their subscription preferences. Faculty retain their subscription preferences as long as their job records and contract paperwork remain current.
FAQs for Approved Senders
Essential lists (faculty@smu.edu, staff@smu.edu, undergraduate@smu.edu, and graduate@smu.edu) are reserved for content that is mandatory for the University community. These messages are related to safety, health, personnel, and academic business. Membership on these essential lists is mandatory, and the ability to send to these lists is limited.
Managed lists are provided to the various departments to communicate non-essential content to the appropriate audience. These include events, newsletters, and other information. Managed lists will be populated with all addresses, but individuals can opt-out of these messages at any time.
A small group of individuals is permitted to send to these essential lists, including Public Affairs, Provost, HR, Enrollment Services, Emergency Management, etc. However, they may only use these lists to communicate information that is mandatory for the target audience.
For example, annual benefit-enrollment information may be sent to the mandatory list as it is critical information. However, the HR newsletter should be sent using a managed list instead.
Yes. When requesting a list, please indicate to which target audiences they need to communicate. If all four audience types are selected, the requester will receive four separate email lists containing the appropriate audience allowing the message to be sent to the appropriate audience.
Messages can be sent from Outlook, Webmail, or whichever email client you prefer. Messages can also be sent directly from list.smu.edu. The “To” field needs to contain the appropriate email address for the desired list. These addresses will be provided to the requester when the list is created.
There are two ways to unsubscribe from the managed lists. At the bottom of each email that is sent to these lists, a custom footer is automatically added with an unsubscribe link, as well as a link to the Subscription Portal page located at mylists.smu.edu.
Yes, a subscription report is emailed automatically to the list owners with the number of addresses subscribed on a monthly basis.
Lists should only be created for recurring use. If there is a one-time event, please utilize the existing lists in your department whenever possible. Exception requests will be reviewed for approval.
Yes. A process is in place to add all new employees to all lists when they are hired. Students are also subscribed automatically. Student lists are refreshed on an annual basis.
Yes. They can opt-in to any of the lists via the Email Subscription page at mylists.smu.edu.