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.