The Daily Announcements are a communication tool that allow registered members of the campus community to compose and send news and information to the students, faculty and staff at UTMB, in a special daily message broadcast to all owners of UTMB email accounts. The message is submitted via a web page to a database; a computer program composes the daily email and sends the message.

In addition to the email message, the program also publishes the information to a web page linked to the UTMB home page. Announcements are also archived in a database, and may be searched and re-referenced.  

The latest version of the announcements, released in May 2004, includes new features such as built-in spell-checking, additional text formatting options, enhanced management tools, and the ability to edit or revise pending announcements. Another important change with the newest version: the deadline for submitting a message for the following day has been pushed back to 8 p.m., from 4:30 p.m..

The Daily Announcements were originally created and launched in 1998. They were overhauled in 2000 and again in 2004, and are supported collaboratively by University Advancement, Information Services and Academic Resources.  

Access to this communication resource is made available to faculty, staff and students through the "trusted requester" process. Submission privileges are granted at the departmental level, through the Information Resources Access Management process, part of Information Services.

Permissions roll over; if you had access to the system prior to the launch of the May 2004 version, your publishing access will be maintained. If you are a new to the system, your department's "trusted requester" can request access for you (By default, all trusted requesters have announcement submission privileges.)

To gain access to the announcement submission page, two steps are required:
1. You must have your department's IS liaison (your "Trusted Requestor") request access to the web announcement system on your behalf. Visit IRAM to find your Trusted Requestor...

2. You must agree to follow these guidelines, to use good judgment about posting announcements, and to be responsive to complaints and advice from others.

Persons who abuse this privilege will have their ability to submit daily announcements revoked.

1. The announcement must be related to UTMB.
The purpose of the Daily Announcements is to inform UTMB faculty, staff, and students about issues, events, and opportunities relevant to them. It is not for advertising events unrelated to UTMB, its mission, goals or business.

2. If it is not obvious how an announcement relates to UTMB, the relationship must be made clear in the announcement message.
An example: An announcement about a garage sale is generally not UTMB business. A garage sale hosted on campus by a registered student group to raise money for scholarships is. Distinctions of this sort--sponsorship of an activity, event, or message--should be made in messages, as appropriate.

3. Announcements may not be used to promote a business, commercial venture or for the personal gain of any UTMB employee.
There are two exceptions: Offers publicized by Human Resources' Organizational Development, Training & Recognition as a benefit to employees, highlighting when a community business has partnered with the university to make special offers to staff and students (reduced price sporting event tickets, other special offers). And, for campus services that have a contractual or policy relationship with UTMB and make occasional use of the announcements for commercial messages (e.g. Bookstore, parking, food services).

4. Each announcement must include a contact name, phone number and email address for questions or additional information.
The web-based submission tool supports this requirement.

5. As a general guideline, an announcement should not be posted more than three times. Publishing dates are determined by the person submitting the announcement. In some cases, it may be appropriate to post a message over a longer period of time. If in doubt, please contact us to consult.

6. The announcements are not a public forum or discussion tool. They may not be used to air complaints or criticisms, raise issues or review practices, or make any sort of attack on a person or idea. The announcements are a mechanism for communicating to a wide audience about activities, events, and opportunities.

7. The announcements are distributed to all UTMB faculty, students, and staff--announcements should be of interest to this wide audience.  Each recipient must take the time to open, review and ultimately discard each set of announcements. Please keep this in mind as you consider an announcement. Daily announcements should not be used when a distribution list or direct e-mailing to a subset of the campus is a viable alternative.

These guidelines may be revised as the tool is further developed, as new features become available, and as readers offer feedback on the merits of the service.