COMPUTING
POLICIES

COMPUTING
CENTER

DEPARTMENTAL & OTHER SPECIAL E-MAIL ADDRESSES

Occasionally a department or other organization will require a special e-mail address that is identified with the organization itself rather than a specific person. An example would be an e-mail address to request information from a department. An address identified with the department wouldn't change as staff changed or might direct e-mail to several people simultaneously.

We support two ways to handle this kind of requirement: a separate U-connect e-mail userid that is forwarded to a single actual recipient (although that recipient may occasionally change) or a Listserv address that distributes incoming mail to one or more individual recipients. In either case the actual recipient or recipients would respond to the incoming mail as appropriate.

Whether a separate userid or a Listserv list is chosen there are several points to consider:

• The person requesting the service and to whom the userid or list will be assigned should be someone who is likely to be available for a reasonable length of time. It would be inappropriate, for example, to have a temporary or part-time employee request a department's permanent information request e-mail address. The department chair or director would be the appropriate person. The person to whom the special userid or list is assigned need not be the person who will actually be handling the incoming e-mail, but that person will be responsible for deciding who will.
• The address created must be appropriate to its function. It must not create a misleading impression about its purpose or appear to have a greater scope or imprimatur than it actually has. For example, the addresses "chair" or "info" wouldn't be appropriate since they don't identify the department or organization involved.
• If a separate userid is used it will be a U-Connect userid so it must conform to the usual requirements: it is limited to seven alphabetic or numeric characters and its host name will be uky.edu or pop.uky.edu. A Listserv list is a little more flexible and its name can contain up to 15 characters and can use a hyphen in addition to the alphamerics. The host name for lists is lsv.uky.edu.
• It is important to keep in mind that each userid is assigned to a specific person. Sharing userids and passwords is prohibited by University policy.
• These mechanisms are not intended to provide an individual with multiple e-mail addresses for their personal use or to circumvent the limits on mailbox sizes.

Contact the Help Desk to discuss your requirements.

HOW TO REQUEST A SPECIAL E-MAIL ADDRESS

To set up a special U-connect userid contact User Account Services in McVey Hall.

To set up a Listserv list see our Listserv Information pages for a list request form.

HOW TO ASSIGN A NEW RECIPIENT (OR RECIPIENTS) FOR THE INCOMING MAIL

A special U-connect userid will have its incoming e-mail forwarded to a single recipient. To change the forwarding use the U-connect web interface at uconnect.uky.edu. It's a good idea to test that you've correctly set up forwarding by sending e-mail to your special address and then checking at the forwarding destination.

A Listserv list can forward incoming mail to one or more recipients. Instructions for changing the list members can be found in our Listserv Information pages.

HOW TO TRANSFER CONTROL OF THE ADDRESS

When the person to whom the special userid or list is assigned leaves their position with that responsibility it will be necessary to assign it to someone else. This person will then be able to perform the tasks described above.

To reassign a POP userid contact User Account Services in McVey Hall.

If Listserv is being used it will be necessary to change the list owner. Instructions can be found in our Listserv Information pages.

This page was last updated on 2001-11-12. Please direct questions and comments regarding this page to webmaster@www.uky.edu.