Mass Emails to Students
The Academic Strategic Communications team handles requests for mass emails to current UTSA students.
Email can be an important tool for communicating with UTSA students; however, it can be one that is overused, and excessive email can negatively impact student experience. These guidelines are intended to preserve the effectiveness of email communication, reduce the amount of unwanted email, and ensure students receive key messages related to their enrollment.
Requests for mass emails to incoming freshmen and transfer students should be directed to the Enrollment Marketing and Communications team.
Requests to send surveys to UTSA students must follow the University Survey Policy and Procedure managed by Institutional Research and Analysis.
Before you submit, please ensure your content meets the following requirements:
Email Request Guidelines
- All requests will be reviewed for relevance to the university mission, content and readability. Mass emails will be approved on the merits of each request.
- Student mass email requests must be of interest to the vast majority of the target email audience.
- Only requests from UTSA offices will be considered. Off-campus requests will not be accepted.
- For approved messages, there is a two-message limit; no more than one reminder email will be sent following the initial email. If a reminder email is desired, that information must be included in the original request.
- Requested send dates will try to be accommodated but cannot be guaranteed.
- Emails cannot be used to advertise specific courses, on-campus employment or team tryouts.
- Emails cannot be used to promote individual events to the entire student body
- Email cannot be sent with attachments.
- Colleges and academic departments may request emails that are academically related and targeted to specific students associated with the college/department.
- Only those student organizations whose purpose has an impact on the vast majority of the student body (i.e., SGA) may submit mass student email requests.
- Email requests for research surveys/recruitment must follow the University Survey Policy and Procedure managed by Institutional Research and Analysis.
Messaging
- Timely
- Geared toward all students primarily, faculty and staff secondarily
- Supports students’ personal/professional growth and academic success
- Includes your UTSA sub-branded logo
Images
- Sized to maximum width of 640px
- JPG format
- Follows UTSA visual style guidelines
Videos
- Provide link to video hosted on your channel (YouTube, Vimeo) - video embedding in the email is not possible.
- If video includes speaking, closed captioning must be included.
Student Email Best Practices
- Compose a clear, compelling subject line.
- Include a "Pre-header" - the preview phrase that appears below the subject line in your reader's email inbox.
- Keep it short - minimize the length of your email.
- Design it to be easily scannable so the reader can quickly understand your message.
- Make sure your call to action is clear - what you want your reader to do next ("Learn more," "Register," "Vote," etc.)
- Use UTSA Orange (PMS 1665; HEX #f15a22) and UTSA Blue (PMS 289; HEX #0c2340) as your primary colors.
- Consult the UTSA Visual Style Guide for web-accessible color options and for more information on complying with the UTSA brand.
Resources
- Also, consider using free online design platforms like Canva.com or logging into your UTSA licensed Adobe account and using Adobe Spark Post to create your own graphics and then add your text and sub-branded UTSA wordmark.
- Some fonts work well digitally or paired with others, and some don’t! View our font pairing quick reference guide.
Scheduling
Mass email requests must be submitted at least 2 weeks in advance of their intended delivery date so we can slot your email into an open date on UTSA's mass email scheduling calendar, which is managed in collaboration with multiple vice presidential divisions.
