E-mail @ RIT - Communication Via Mailing Lists
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Mailing lists are used to send e-mail to more than one individual. There are several techniques that can be useful to you when sending or receiving those types of e-mail. The purpose of this page is to provide some basic information on the more common methods of e-mail distribution at RIT and is by no means meant to be an exhaustive resource. If you have questions, contact the ITS HelpDesk at x5-4357 for more assistance. |
Using BCC (Blind Carbon Copy)
Using the BCC (blind carbon copy) field in your e-mail application for multiple recipients is not a reliable technique for keeping an e-mail confidential and preventing others from seeing who is listed in the BCC field. BCC recipients are obscured, but not protected from other BCC recipients, because they can be seen in the Internet Headers of the message by the others listed in the BCC field. Using BCC, however, is a good way to reduce the size of a header of an e-mail that will be replied to or forwarded. This can be extremely useful when sending to a very long list of people.
RIT's Message Center
Message Center is an RIT application designed to manage messages sent to the campus community. It allows students, faculty, and staff to select which categories of messages that they want to receive, and how they want to read them.
Your preferences can be managed by logging on the the myRIT portal (my.rit.edu) and customizing the "My Message Board" portlet. The categories used by Message Center are predetermined and only authorized users can send messages.
Creating Your Own Mailing List
There are three main ways to set up your own mailing lists. The first two are campus-only lists and the last can include non-campus e-mail addresses. Contact the ITS HelpDesk at x5-4357 for assistance in determining which method might be best for your needs.
- Campus-only distribution lists can be set up in Outlook.
- Campus-only distribution lists can be set up in Exchange based on categories in the LDAP Directory (e.g. affiliation, department, division, program, college, year, etc.) with the assistance of the ITS HelpDesk.
- Mailing lists can be set up using RIT's listserv service. Listservs are appropriate when
membership is voluntary, such as discussion groups and bulletin boards and when membership
includes non-RIT e-mail addresses. More information on the RIT listserv service (called
Mailman) is available at lists.rit.edu and reference
the document, Using
Listservs
. To set up a listsev with the ITS HelpDesk, you
will need to complete a Listserv
Request Form 
The RITSTAFF Mailing List
All faculty and staff are automatically joined to the RITSTAFF mailing list for general campus access. If you want to leave or rejoin the RITSTAFF mailing list, contact the ITS HelpDesk at x5-4357 for assistance.
Public Folders
Public Folders in Exchange allow you to access archived messages (through the Exchange environment) sent to the RITSTAFF mailing list. You do not need to be subscribed to the RITSTAFF mailing list to access the archived messages.