New email protocols to reduce inbox overflow

SUNY New Paltz is publishing important messages and news updates related to the College’s response to COVID-19 on the campus news website. Use this link to view all these posts in one place.

The update below was shared on Thursday, March 26.

Campus community members can view updates at the Coronavirus Information and Coronavirus FAQs webpages, which are being updated regularly as this situation evolves.


Dear Members of the Campus Community:

As we continue to adjust to new demands and challenges in our work, we have heard from many of you that the volume of information being shared via campus email, while appreciated, is becoming overwhelming.

In an effort to reduce the volume of messages and make it easier for students, faculty and staff to find and absorb important information and consistent with our values of transparency, the College is preparing to shift to a more manageable and appropriate use of our communication tools during this uncertain time.

New process for reporting confirmed cases of COVID-19 in our campus community

For those directly or potentially affected by a new COVID-19 case because of the known movement paths and building/room use of the affected individual, we will continue to use NPAlert to notify you immediately of a potential exposure and provide Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Ulster County Department of Health and Mental Health guidance on next steps regarding quarantine and self-isolation.

Rather than send everyone on campus immediate NPAlerts and all-fs and all-stu emails each time we learn of a new confirmed case of COVID-19 within our campus community, we will move to a daily notification at 4:30 p.m. reporting on any new cases and impacted buildings from that day.

New process for consolidating all-fs and all-stu emails related to COVID-19 resources and guidance

We are also preparing a new Daily Digest message that will consolidate other all-fs and all-stu messages that pertain to COVID-19 and support students, faculty, and staff as we undertake our instructional mission in this new normal. Effective Monday, March 30, this digest will provide critical, timely information to campus community members in one message, helping to cut down on email overload. Week in Review will no longer be sent out on Mondays for the time being, as that campus news will be incorporated into the Daily Digest.

We ask those campus units with the ability to send messages to the all-fs and all-stu lists, to send COVID-19-related messages to communication@newpaltz.edu and OCM will work with those units to compile institutional messages into a single email, the Daily Digest, that will go out Monday – Friday around 10 a.m. Those units will retain their ability to send messages via these lists for non-COVID-related urgent news, such as IT outages, power outages, cybersecurity issues, and other emergency information that needs to be shared in real time with the campus. Please be judicious in your use of these official listservs during the spring semester.

Faculty and staff will continue to have access to send messages via the facstaf-l list, consistent with proper usage guidelines from Information Technology Services (ITS), but we ask you to be judicious in your use of the list when everyone is drowning in information overload.

For employees who use email settings that automatically file list-serve or campus announcements to a folder or the messages are blocked and never received

As we work to deliver critical information to campus community members, we recommend that all students, faculty and staff check their email settings to confirm that messages are not blocked or automatically filed to other folders that may go unread or directed to junk folders. Email continues to be the College’s official mode of communication with faculty, staff and students.

We also invite you to stay up-to-date by signing up for the NPAlert text notification system, if you have not done so already. Instructions can be found at https://www.newpaltz.edu/npalert/.

We will continue to send important messages daily through email and text alerts as warranted. This information continues to be compiled and updated regularly and past messaging can be found here:  https://newpaltz.edu/contingency/ and https://www.newpaltz.edu/coronavirus-info/.

Shelly Wright
Chief of Staff and Vice President for Communication