by Osamu Makiguchi
Mass messaging at UH encompasses emergency alerts to students, faculty, and staff via text messaging; email or phone alerts; campus-wide announcements via email; and Listserv email mailing lists for small and large working groups.
UH Alert for faculty and staff can alert users via text messages to cell phones, recorded voice notification to up to six phone numbers and email communications to UH email accounts or even non-UH email accounts. The university tested UH Alert for faculty and staff on April 16 this year. The test of UH Alert for faculty and staff was quite successful. At the time of the test 4,800 faculty and staff had signed up for the service.
UH Alert for students is available for all students within the 10 campuses of the University of Hawaii system. Currently, UH Alert for students only supports text messaging to mobile phones. Currently there are 8,794 students signed up for the service.
Everyone in the UH community is encouraged to subscribe to UH Alert. More information and subscription sign-up can be found at https://www.hawaii.edu/alert
Another way to reach the UH community is through the UH Email Broadcast Service developed by ITS. The Broadcast Service is primarily used to send non-emergency related informational email to UH users across the entire UH system or at the campus level. Email can be targeted to distinct groups such as sending email to only students at a specific campus, faculty and staff at a specific campus, or a combination of groups.
The Broadcast Service allows UH units to send notices and announcements that may be of interest to the UH community. Units wanting to send notices through this service must obtain approval from the appropriate office found in the table of approving authorities on the Broadcast Service site: http://www.hawaii.edu/broadcast
ITS also maintains a Listserv service for UH faculty and staff to personally maintain email lists. Listserv lists range from a handful of email addresses to several hundred email addresses. UH units, faculty and staff use Listserv for a variety of purposes from maintaining a list of registered students in a specific graduate program to providing information to the public regarding a specific research program.
Listserv lists can be managed either through email or through a web-based interface. You must have a UH Username to request and maintain a list and the list must be related to a UH program or activity. Although, you must have a UH Username to create a list, anyone outside the UH community with a non-UH email address may join a list if you desire. More information on the UH Listserv service can be found here: http://listserv.hawaii.edu
As technology develops and needs change, ITS will continue to research and offer various mass messaging options.
