Email Requirements
All emails to inquiries or admitted students must be sent via Slate, and in coordination Enrollment Management. This ensures that student statuses are accurate, reduces the risk of emails being filtered as spam, and enables centralized metrics and functional tracking.
An email from an academic unit must be about the academic unit, it’s subject area, relevant interests, or majors. Broad campus topics such as application dates and deadlines, visiting (in general), living on campus, etc. are covered by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and should be avoided by academic units.
Email Send Request Requirements
The email send request must be submitted in Basecamp and assigned to OUA-Contact. It will be reviewed for the following requirements:
- Working Slate URL, linking to the email to be sent
- Complete audience details
- Send date
Once all necessary details listed above are completed, the request will be assigned to the Data Services Team. To guarantee delivery on the requested date, a request must be submitted with three days of lead time from when the request is deemed complete. Please submit your email requests with as much lead time as possible. Additionally, if an email is supposed to send on a weekend, that request should be entered with the preceding Friday as the due date in Basecamp, and a note to send on a weekend date, so it can be scheduled in advance.
Requests must come from the college communications/marketing/admissions representative. In general, we cannot service requests from departments. Those requests should filter up through the college staff members who are approved to submit Basecamp requests.
Any email to be sent to a specific list of students must include UINs. Additionally, the list should be sent via Box, keeping student information secure. No student information should be posted in Basecamp or emailed.
Audience Restrictions
Colleges can communicate with students at the inquiry, admitted, and accepted stages, but cannot communicate with students who have applied but not yet received an Admissions decision. An inquiry is defined as a student that has expressed interest in Illinois by one of the following methods:
- Complete an inquiry form
- Send in a test score
- Email or call the Office of Undergraduate Admissions
- Actively engage with several emails
- Spend a significant amount of time browsing the Admissions website
- Apply
Academic units are restricted to communicate with students who have expressed an interest in one of their majors or programs. These interests are created by, but are not limited to:
- Slate inquiry forms on college/academic unit websites
- Slate inquiry form on the Admissions website
- Students finding and expressing interest via the Program Explorer
- Student records (test score submissions, etc.) that come with academic interests
Blackout dates
During certain key periods of the Admissions calendar (particularly when data is changing rapidly), the Office of Enrollment Management will not send emails. These dates are as follows:
- On and three calendar days after early action decision release
- On and three calendar days after regular action decision release
- On and one day after application open
- On and one day after application deadlines
These blackout dates are extremely limited, and exist to make sure students receive the correct messages, as well as to allow for central campus messaging around these dates. There will be updates sent out to confirm blackout dates after the confirmation of decision release dates for the cycle.