UMass Official Email
On February 15, 2004 a new policy went into effect at UMass Amherst establishing UMail (OIT’s email service) as an official means of communication between the University and all students. This means that UMass administrative departments can now send official notices via email to students’ UMail accounts.
What is an official email?
The term UMass official email refers to all official communications (e.g., excess check notices, bill notices, etc.) sent by administrative departments to UMass students via email.
Do not confuse official emails with other electronic mailing lists available on campus. Official email accounts are intended for official communications only and are restricted to authorized users.
Who can send an official email?
Use of official email accounts is restricted to authorized users from administrative departments (e.g., Registrar, Bursar). Individual students, faculty or non-authorized staff cannot use official email accounts to communicate with the student community at UMass Amherst.
Each administrative department must designate an official email contact (someone responsible for sending official communications). This person’s name, telephone number and email address must be sent to massmail@oit.umass.edu to be added to OIT’s list of authorized users.
Note: OIT will only process messages from authorized users.
How does it work?
Each administrative department is assigned an email account to be used for official email communications only. For instance, Student Records’ email account is official-registrar@admin.umass.edu. This is also the sender address that students will see when they receive an official email from Student Records.
OIT manages the distribution of UMass official emails. This means that administrative departments do not send official emails to students directly. Instead, official emails are sent to OIT first, then re-directed to students by OIT staff.
To send an official email
The authorized user in your department must contact OIT (massmail@oit.umass.edu) with the text of the official message and a list of recipients' email addresses.
The List of Email Addresses
- Must be plain text, with one address per line. No Word, Excel or other file formats will be accepted.
- With the exception of incoming students, only umass.edu email addresses will be accepted.
The Official Message
- Must have a subject line.
- Must be plain text with no attachments. No HTML will be accepted. For non-text materials, we recommend that you post these materials online, then include the URL in the text of the message.
Note: Official email accounts are not available to receive email. This means that students cannot directly reply to an official email. We recommend that you include a reply email address each time you send an official notice. Per your request, we can also add a generic auto-reply message to your account.
Please plan ahead! OIT will send your official notice within three business days. We do not review your message for content, nor can we cancel or intercept mailings once we have received them.
Note: Remember to include an in-house email address in the recipients’ list if you wish to receive a confirmation copy of the mailing.
