To UTC Faculty and Staff:
Greetings and welcome back to campus for the spring semester.
In recent months a number of faculty and staff have expressed concern over
the proliferation and content of email messages on the UTC internal email
service commonly called "Raven," and more formally known as UTCSTAFF. For
some, the bulletin board feature including everything from the sale of used
cars to opinions on world and campus events provides welcome information,
while for others it is an annoyance. The problem has been that "Raven" has
also been used as a vehicle for transmitting important official university
announcements, and therefore it is necessary for everyone to screen their
email carefully to be sure they do not miss information required for their job.
After much deliberation and consultation with our IT experts, the
Chancellor's Executive Council has recommended the addition of a separate
email information vehicle to be used exclusively for announcements. This
new service, to be known as UTCINFO, will be restricted to conveying
official university communications and announcements regarding campus
activities, policies and events. It is not intended to replace UTCSTAFF,
but rather to supplement it.
Here is how it will work. Anyone wishing to post an announcement on UTCINFO
will submit the text of the announcement by email to:
[log in to unmask] That message will be transmitted to the University
Relations office, where it will be screened to be sure it is appropriate
for distribution as an announcement. If approved, it will be sent out to
the entire faculty and staff list, just the same as is currently done with
UTCSTAFF. If it is not approved, it will be returned to the sender with an
explanation; it may require a minor change, or it may be deemed
inappropriate in its entirety. For any message rejected as inappropriate,
the message may still be sent out to the campus community using UTCSTAFF.
Bear in mind that there may be a slight delay of up to 24 hours between
submission and posting of an announcement, especially if it is submitted
outside normal business hours.
UTCINFO will now be the official vehicle for communications to faculty and
staff. Messages submitted to UTCINFO should be designed to provide
information about events, meetings, deadlines, policy announcements and
other matters of concern to the campus community. They should not be
designed to invite responses, as the system will not permit responses in
the manner that UTCSTAFF does.
It is hoped that the introduction of UTCINFO will enable those faculty and
staff who would like to avoid having to wade through numerous email
messages on Raven to do so without fear of missing out on important
information. It is possible to set up a filter either to exclude messages
from UTCSTAFF, or to direct those messages to a separate folder in one's
email account where they can be viewed at a later, more convenient time.
Instructions on how to set up a filter (for Eudora users) or a rule (for
Outlook users) are posted on the ITD website at the following address:
http://itd.utc.edu/software/eudora/filters.shtml. We are currently seeking
a similar filtering process for users of OneNet, and will provide further
information as soon as it is available.
I want to stress that this new email vehicle will in no way restrict the
use of UTCSTAFF (commonly referred to as Raven). Messages may still be sent
to UTCSTAFF as they have been in the past, and responses may be posted, all
without going through a screening process in the office of University
Relations. There will be no censoring of messages distributed in this
manner. The only difference is that the new UTCINFO vehicle will allow
those members of the faculty and staff who wish to receive official
university communications separately from sales, opinion statements, and
other messages to do so, and to screen or automatically delete the latter
messages if they wish.
At this time all faculty and staff will automatically receive UTCINFO, just
as they do UTCSTAFF. You do not need to take any action to enroll in this
service.
As we implement this system over the next few weeks, I am sure there will
be issues and problems that will need to be addressed. I invite you to
bring those to the attention of Chuck Cantrell in University Relations.
Sincerely,
John Friedl
John Friedl, Ph.D., J.D.
Provost and Vice Chancellor
for Academic Affairs
The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
102 Founders Hall, Dept. 5555
615 McCallie Avenue
Chattanooga, TN 37403-2598
Phone: (423) 425-4633
Fax: (423) 756-5559
Email: [log in to unmask]
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