Towson University Daily Digest: E-mail News and Announcements
last updated February 17, 2006

Purpose

The University publishes a Daily Digest of news and announcements in e-mail format. The purpose of the Daily Digest is to decrease the number of all-campus e-mail messages while at the same time provide the university community with timely and useful news and announcements. The items submitted to the Daily Digest are also channeled to other electronic media, such as staff and student intranets, and a searchable archive is maintained.

Overview

1. The Daily Digest is e-mailed to all Towson University e-mail account holders (students, faculty, and staff) every day at approximately 1:00am.
   
2. Contributions are submitted through an authenticated Web-based application.
   
3. Any member of the campus community (students, faculty or staff) may contribute to the Daily Digest through their appropriate representative, subject to the provisions of this policy.
   
4. Only one version of the Daily Digest is published each day for all campus users. The headlines are placed within the body of the message based on how the individual items are submitted (for students, for faculty/staff or for general viewing).
   
5. The Daily Digest itself includes only headlines, not the "stories." Each headline is a hyperlink to a separate content page that appears in a separate web browser window if the reader chooses to read it.
   
6. Content will not be edited prior to distribution.   It is, however, subject to this policy and all other applicable University policies and procedures. 
   
7. While the Daily Digest is designed primarily for desktop-based computing and a campus-based audience, limited functionality is available using mobile devices such as like personal digital assistants (e.g., Palm, WindowsCE and PocketPC devices) and e-mail-enabled cell phones. While these devices generally do not provide full HTML content viewing, the headlines within each e-mail may be easily read.

Contribution Process and Whom to Contact

Executive Division: Marilyn Nall, Marilyn Dannenfelser, Barbara Michels, Terri Ward
Administration and Finance: Amie Voith, Cassy Bennett, Pam Martin
Division of Economic and Community Outreach: Bobbie O'Connell
Academic Affairs and the Office of the Provost: Jo Schmidt, Robin Wiesand
University Advancement: Elizabeth Carbone, Carole Dunsworth, Jan Lucas, Louise Miller, Laura Lewis Brown, Stu Zang, Amy Smith, Daniel Fuchs, Ashton Nicolas
Student Affairs: Faculty/Staff -- Cyndi Zimmerman, Susan Lidard; Students -- studentsddrequests@towson.edu
Athletics: Barry Barnum, Peter Schlehr, Mary Perry
Towson University Police: Col. Bernard Gerst, Capt. Robert Novak, Capt. Joseph Herbert, Lt. Charles Herring, Det. George Morgan, Sgt. Scott Rouch, Jean Comer

Additional individuals who need to be added to the Daily Digest list of editors must contact their respective vice president.  Once approved through their vice president's office, the request should be forwarded in an e-mail message to the Help Center at helpcenter@towson.edu.

What is the Procedure for Posting to the Digest?
 

For general campus announcements we recommend that an e-mail with the specific information outlined below be sent to your appropriate campus representative (see above list). The e-mail should minimally contain the following information:

• your full name

• the name of the sponsoring organization

• the headline (the title of message or event)

• the choice of group for notification

  • general campus

  • faculty

  • staff

  • students

• start date for announcement to run

• end date for announcement to run (run length is limited to seven days)

• content of the announcement

• contact information for people viewing the message (e-mail address, phone number, Web URL address, etc.)

Emergency Communications

In the event of an emergency, inclement weather closure, interruption of an important service, or another significant and unplanned event, an all-campus e-mail (students, faculty/staff, both) may still be sent if it is essential and the announcement therof cannot be withheld until the next Daily Digest release.  This current policy does not change the existing all-campus e-mail policy; it does, however, constrain its ad-hoc use to true emergencies.

Advance Submission, Retraction, Correction

1. Submissions can be completed as far in advance as desired. 
   
2. Corrections can be made by the author up until the time that specific message runs in the Digest. Once that date has passed and the mailing system has distributed the Digest issue for that day, no further editing changes will be possible.  A new contribution would be required to notify readers of a correction or change. This is to ensure that the university maintains continuity and integrity of public record.
   
3. Retractions can be made up until the time of publication. As with corrections, once the issue is distributed by e-mail, it cannot be retracted; therefore, a new item would need to be submitted for the next issue.

Acceptable/Unacceptable Usage and Content

The Daily Digest is a means to conduct university business by providing the university community with timely and useful news and informational announcements and to communicate information applicable to the activities of recognized campus organizations. Contributing items that impact small segments of the university community will result in news overload. Although headlines are the only content included in the once-a-day e-mail, receiving 100 headlines will quickly become a burden. Personal or commercial announcements and announcements promoting personal, political or religious viewpoints are not permitted to be posted on the Daily Digest. The Vice Presidents and the Director of Athletics will have the final authority to determine the announcements to be included in the Daily Digest from their respective divisions. Below are examples of acceptable and unacceptable uses of the Daily Digest.

1. Examples of acceptable use: to disseminate information about updates to university policies, procedures and operations; to announce a staff or faculty training and development program; to announce a snow closing; to announce a promotion; to announce an organizational structure change; to provide updates on benefit plans; to announce a planned service interruption; to announce a lecture, performance, concert, play, activity or athletic event sponsored by the university or student organizations.
2. Examples of unacceptable use: to announce births and birthdays, to announce that one's child is selling cookies; to announce a yard sale; to prepare income tax returns for a fee; to announce employment opportunities (other channels exist for this); to announce information about single class sections (cancellations, room changes, etc.); to offer items or services for sale, rent, trade or barter; to promote political candidates; to conduct threaded discussions; to offer commentary; to express opinions or rebuttals concerning items posted by others.
3. Personnel announcements: information regarding new hires, current retirements and deaths shall be published as appropriate but no more than weekly by the administrative specialist in the office of the Vice President for Administration and Finance.
   

Restriction of Posting Rights

1. All entries in the Daily Digest will include the name of the person who posted the particular entry; this is automatically appended by the system.
   
2. Misuse, abuse or excessive use may result in restriction or termination of posting rights.
   
3. Excessive corrections, retractions and revisions may result in restriction or termination of posting rights.

Approved by: David F. Harnage, Senior Vice President and Chief Fiscal Officer

Date Issued: September 25, 2003

Last Modified: June 19, 2007