Official Students-l Policy as adopted by ASHMC Council
(Adopted October 5, 1997; Amended February 1, 1998)

Students-l is the all-campus mailing list. While it is primarily for students, anyone who has signed the Harvey Mudd College roster and wishes to subscribe may do so. Anyone else who wishes to subscribe to students-l may petition the ASHMC Council at their weekly meeting to be included in the distribution of students-l messages. Students,  faculty and staff of The Claremont Colleges may contribute announcements of events to this list at any time during the school year.

A student of Harvey Mudd College moderates the list. The student is to be chosen by the ASHMC Council. The moderator has final authority to send or reject any messages sent to the list. The moderator is not responsible for the content of messages sent out to the list.

Mail sent to students-l is treated as if it were a flyer about to be placed in every student’s mailbox. To make sure a message is approved, follow the guidelines below:

The e-mail must be potentially useful to all the students of Harvey Mudd College. Announcements should be sent no less than three days in advance of the event. Last minute announcements may be rejected. Generally only one message may be sent out per event. No reminders or the like will be issued through students-l. Club announcements may only be sent out at the beginning of the year. After the initial announcement, the clubs are expected to keep their own mailing lists or other information distribution system. Make sure your announcement includes information about who is involved, what is happening, when and where the event is and a brief description. Make sure you have contact information such as a phone number or e-mail address for anyone who needs more information.

Regular mailings that occur may include a 5-College (5-C) crime report sent out weekly, and the Weekly Events Calender (a list of upcoming events for The Claremont Colleges). To have something included in these mailings, contact those responsible for them, not the students-l moderator.

A college-wide lost and found message (which often includes other minor announcements) is also sent out sporadically (usually once or twice a week). To have something included in this, send mail to students-l-moderator@hmc.edu and it will be sent with the next message. Make sure you put “Lost: [item]” or “Found: [item]” in the subject line of your e-mail. Be aware of an additional delay in posting these messages.

Messages that do NOT belong on students-l include the following: messages that are directed at a small number of students and not the entire student body, opinions or discussion, chain letters, humor files, etc. This list is for announcements.

The moderator reserves the right to edit your submission to fix formatting problems, correct any obvious mistakes or trim non-essential information. You will NOT be contacted to approve such changes unless you explicitly request otherwise in your message. The subject line may also be modified.

Mail sent to students-l@hmc.edu is queued during the day and reviewed in the evening. It is usually sent out in the later hours of the night or early hours of the morning. Any messages sent to students-l are subject to this one-day delay, and possibly more. Plan messages accordingly.

If your message is NOT posted to students-l, a response will be sent informing the sender that the message was not sent. Often times, a reason will be provided along with this rejection notice. Rejected messages may be revised and resubmitted to students-l. If any questions arise, contact the moderator. Messages that are sent to students-l will be carbon copied to the sender.

There are ways to bypass students-l and still send e-mail to all of the students. This is strictly forbidden. If a message needs to be sent out to a sizable subset of students (or more than two HMC classes, or more than half the dorm lists and/or dorm chat lists) in the student body, the message should be sent to students-l or to students-chat-l instead of through other means. Abusing the privilege of mass mailing to the college may result in a written or verbal warning from the moderator, and possibly further disciplinary actions. If someone does abuse the mailing lists, ONLY the moderator should contact the offender. If other students have problems with the use of the campus mass mailing lists, they should contact the moderator instead of the senders of the messages.

If you are not sure if a message should be sent to students-l, but you need to reach a sizable portion of the student body, messages can be sent to students-chat-l. Students-chat-l is an unmoderated list, so anything can be sent to it. However, you must be subscribed to students-chat-l to send to it. To subscribe to students-chat-l, send an e-mail to listkeeper@hmc.edu with “subscribe student-chat-l” in the subject line.