Mass Mailing Policy

In February 1999, the General Faculty adopted a Mass Mailing Policy with the intent to improve the efficiency of campus communication and to reduce the ecologically and economically wasteful characteristics of mass mailings in the College Post Office (CPO). Mass mailing was defined as “any distribution of literature which has no name and address label through the CPO to most or all members of the Berea College community.”

According to the policy, mass mailings should satisfy one of the following criteria:

  1. Obligatory material concerning academic, labor, or residence life rules or requirements.
  2. Information concerning a campus emergency (e.g., deaths, safety concerns, or natural disasters).
  3. Calendars of a series of at least four events.
  4. Other items which, for reasons of security, authentication or content require the use of a paper medium (e.g., documents requiring signatures, surveys to be returned anonymously, photographic brochures).

As an alternative to paper mass mailings, electronic and centralized forms of communication should be used, but senders should think carefully about the utility of the message to the entire community in order not to “spam” electronic mailboxes unnecessarily.