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KUMC Policies, Procedures and Operational Protocols  :

Campus-wide Communication Guidelines

Effective February 2, 2004

The University has many tools, including a number of technology-based tools, to facilitate communication among the members of the campus community. See Communicating with the KUMC Community for information about each tool including how to access and get help using it.

Campus events: the KUMC Events Calendar

The KUMC Events Calendar at http://www2.kumc.edu/calendar is the central record for all scheduled events and activities sponsored by KUMC and the primary means to announce:

  • Public events – lectures, concerts, workshops, seminars, grand rounds, etc.
  • Events sponsored by KUMC departments or sanctioned organizations
  • Exhibits, special sales
  • Governance meetings
  • General interest meetings or events sponsored by KU-Lawrence or KU-Edwards

Some campus entities (e.g., Student Services) maintain discrete calendars on the web. These calendars “roll up to” (that is, information posted to them is also posted to) the Campus Events Calendar.

Members of the Campus Community may post either to the Campus Events Calendar (directly) or to a calendar maintained by his or her school or department. All postings are reviewed prior to their appearance on the calendar. Students should post events associated with their school to the school calendar (if any) and events associated with campus organizations to the Student Services calendar.

University staff and students can sign up for either daily or weekly emails with a link to the week's events through myKUMC.

Broadcast email

Five broadcast accounts are maintained: “Broadcast” for general announcements and business to staff, faculty, and students; “Broadcast-som”, “Broadcast-son”, and “Broadcast-sah” for school announcements and business; and “Broadcast-acad” for Academic Affairs and Research Administration. All campus, or general announcement, broadcast emails are limited to messages from the Chancellor or Executive Vice Chancellor. All other messages should be sent out thru the appropriate KUMC portal.

All broadcast email must be signed with the senders name and department.

“Emergency Alert” email

The “Emergency Alert” account is used for situations which involve potentially serious disruptions of regular activities or threats to the health and well-being of faculty, staff, or students. Select individuals in the EVC’s Office, the Police Department, and Human Resources as well as their counterparts in the Hospital are authorized to initiate Emergency Alert email.

Emergency Alert examples include

  • Campus closed due to blizzard
  • A disaster in the metropolitan area will result in a large influx of patients and the implementation of the disaster plan
  • FBI warns there is an imminent terrorist threat in the Kansas City Metro area

All Emergency Alert email must be signed with the senders name and department.

“Critical Information” email

The “Critical Information” account is used to advise the KUMC community of situations that may inconvenience them, require some action on their part, or require their increased vigilance for non-violent crime but which do not involve major disruptions (including potential disruptions) of regular activities or threats to the health and well-being of faculty, staff, or students. Select individuals in the Police Department, the Safety Office, Information Resources, Facilities Management, and Human Resources are authorized to initiate Critical Information email.

Critical Information examples include

  • The Inclement Weather Policy has been invoked.
  • A burst water line has required the shutdown of water service to a building
  • We will be shutting off power to a building in 45 minutes to replace a failing transformer
  • New, dangerous computer virus: delete all emails with the subject “whatever”
  • Several thefts have taken place in a specific location in the last 24 hours
  • The individual whose picture is attached is suspected of breaking into cars in a parking lot

All Critical Information email must be signed with the senders name and department.

Communications within student organizations, special interest groups, etc.

A number of university tools are available for employee and student groups (formally chartered or self-identified) to communicate among themselves. These tools include:

GroupWise Shared Personal Groups make the distribution of GroupWise email to members of a group straightforward. Contact: the University Help Desk at 8-7995.

MyKUMC Announcements in myKUMC (the university portal) enable the display of announcements to the university population and are by default sent via email. Individuals can opt-out of receiving announcements by email or display via myKUMC. Contact Jameson Watkins.

SharePoint collaboration spaces allow for small group collaboration that includes a shared calendar, announcements, document management, issue tracking, workflow, and much more. Contact Jameson Watkins.

Mailing lists (or commonly known as 'listservs') enable the distribution of simple email to members of a group, particularly large off-campus groups. Contact: Jameson Watkins.

Personal business, surplus furniture and equipment, lost and found items

The most current items are available on the Services tab in myKUMC.

Rev. 6/2008

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