Use of "students" and "community" email lists

Below are policy guidelines for proper use of the "students" and "community" lists, two general-distribution e-mail lists to which all students, faculty and staff members have access.

Mail sent to the students list goes to every student at the Law School. Mail sent to the community list goes only to those students, faculty and staff members who have chosen to be members of that list. (All entering students, however, are automatically subscribed to the community list.) You may subscribe to or unsubscribe from the community list on the web.

The students list is designed primarily for important communications from Law School administrators, faculty and staff members, as well as for announcements by registered student organizations. Yet for a variety of reasons, the Law School has decided not to restrict list access to those persons or to screen messages sent to the list. This means that every student has the ability to send anything he or she wants to the entire student body, at any time.

For this system to work, everyone must exercise great restraint in sending messages to the students list. Every time you send a message to that list, you are imposing a burden on every one of our more than 600 students. Accordingly, you should limit mail to the students list to matters that it is really important be distributed to every student at the Law School. Other messages should be sent to the community list.

Here are some specific guidelines to follow when deciding whether to send a message to the students or community list:

• Notices of meetings, activities and events open to all students may be sent to the students list. Please note, however, that the student home page contains a complete list of upcoming activities and events, and thus a separate e-mail announcement may not be necessary. To post something on the student page, e-mail Dr. Jane Thierfeld Brown.
• If you do choose to announce an activity or event via the students list, please limit yourself or your organization to a single announcement and, if desired, a single follow-up reminder.
• Official notices from student organizations are appropriately sent to the students list if they are intended for all students. But the students list should not be used for messages targeted only at members of a particular organization.
• For sale/wanted messages should always be sent to the community list.
• Important lost & found, car lights on, and similar messages are proper on the students list. So is the occasional free-food message, when you've ordered more pizza than your organization ate.
• Political and other messages that are part of, or reasonably likely to prompt, a discussion should always be sent to the community list. (Even if you want to celebrate a Yankees victory (and especially if you want to celebrate a Red Sox win!)

Your cooperation and restraint will be greatly appreciated. If you have questions about appropriate use of the students list at any time, please don't hesitate to ask.