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IT Reporting and Information Services
Emailing From Banner
Updated: 05/5/08
Topics Covered:
E-mailing Benefits
Guidelines Covering E-mail Content
Guidelines for Basic E-mail Components
Official vs Non-Official Correspondence
The Process in Banner
Miscellaneous Information
E-mailing Benefits
- More timely and efficient communication with students
- E-mails aren’t address dependent
- Students respond in greater percentages to e-mail than US Mail
- Faster delivery
- Reduces environmental waste in printing and paper
- Departmental budget savings in reduced mailing material and postage costs
Guidelines Covering E-mail Content
- Use of attachments or links to web addresses. To minimize load on e-mail servers, don’t send attachments to e-mails. Use web-address links to direct students to public and secure information as opposed to copying that information in the e-mail or as an attachment. Where attachments are necessary, they should be encrypted with the student’s Campus Information System PIN.
- Limit sensitive information sent via e-mail. Given we cannot be assured what e-mail client and security a student will use/observe, offices should make use of web-links (like Banner Self-service for Students) to direct students to sensitive information. Also, offices should never embed in the body of e-mails Social Security Number, Birth-date, passwords or other confidential personal identifying information.
Guidelines For Basic E-mail Components – Addressing, Subject lines, etc.
- Recipients should not be able to see other recipients e-mail addresses.
- Reply to addresses should be an account that the department will service and should not be an individual’s address.
- If no replies are allowed this should be noted in the e-mail.
- Subject line should clearly identify the subject matter and if the from address doesn’t identify the sender clearly, then the subject should identify the sending office as well. Also, this will be the place where the e-mail will be identified as "Official Bmail From ... " so the student can distinguish it from other e-mails.
- Any attachments should use meaningful filenames.
- Return receipt of ‘official administrative’ e-mails is not required but can be allowed for certain correspondence.
Official vs. Non-Official Correspondence
- "Non-official" or Informative E-mail (GWSNOPE) can be sent to any email address recorded in Banner for the student.
- Bmail (GWSPOPE) is the sending of "official" Brockport administrative correspondence to students via their Campus E-Mail accounts from bmail@brockport.edu.
- The Campus e-mail address would not be used as a public list for promoting events. Though current use of Campus e-mail addresses would not be restricted (such as instructor/advisor notifications used via ANGEL). A student is considered covered by the Bmail policy when they accept an offer of admission/make their tuition deposit. This includes walk-aways on leave. While pro-active communication will be needed to communicate to newly admitted students, it was felt this was the time point that reflects a student’s official relationship with the College. It will also allow the many pre-class communications to be sent to these students. Real-Time Weather students are excluded. Real-Time Weather students aren’t placed into the Campus Information System until after the course is completed. They are often not even aware of the courses relationship to Brockport.
- While we recognize that the definition of ‘official administrative’ use will evolve as a matter of what offices decide to send/offer to send via e-mail, we felt some attempt at a definition would provide some basic guidance. Any non-academic (meaning non course-work) correspondence that either requires a response from the student or is required notification by the college before taking actions on the student’s campus information could be considered ‘official administrative’ use. Examples include:
- Financial Aid disbursement authorizations requiring a student sign off.
- Non MMR compliant notification before placing a student Hold on the system.
- Reminder to affirm enrollment, because courses will be purged if the student doesn’t affirm enrollment
. - Advertising of an office’s services would not be official administrative use.
- If a department wishes to start sending ‘official administrative’ correspondence then that office would need to stipulate what correspondence will be included and advertise that information to students before starting to make use of this process. Students must be notified not to block any emails from bmail@brockport.edu. And coordinate efforts with IT as well.
- Currently the only option for a student to request a resending of an ‘official administrative’ e-mail is for the student to contact the sending office.
The Process in Banner
Required Setup:
- Use Banner Form GWIUPRV to ensure you are in the USR_GENERAL_EMAIL_MANAGEMENT Security Class. If not, contact Sheila Meyers in Operations to be added.
- Create a Paragraph code using GTVPARA
- Create the Email Body using GUAPARA/GWSPARA. Flat text files can be loaded into GUAPARA using GWSPARA.
- Create a Letter code using GTVLETR
Sending the E-mail:
- Review/edit/create E-mail Body using GUAPARA/GWSPARA.
- Create a Population Selection of the appropriate target audience. If you do not create population selections, then e-mail ITS Operations a request. Use GLIEXTR to review population.
- Run GWSNOPE/GWSPOPE in AUDIT mode to validate appropriate target audience (size and recipients).
- Run GWSNOPE/GWSPOPE in UPDATE mode to send e-mails and create GUIMAIL/SUAMAIL/RUAMAIL letter code entry.
Miscellaneous Information
For more detailed information see other related documentation for:
- GWSPARA – Loading flat text files as E-mail Body
- GWSNOPE – Sending Non-official E-mail
- GWSPOPE – Sending Official (Bmail)
- TIPS AND TRICKS - Useful tips and tricks
Other useful Banner Job Submission Processes:
- GWSBMAL - Bmail by Department Report
- GWSRTLC - Campus Information System Login Return Locations
