Campuswide Communications

Guidelines for Campus

Cal Poly is committed to open and consistent communication with its campus community. In addition to standard communications to keep students and employees informed about campus operations and programming, current events will from time to time elicit calls for campuswide messages, for the university to offer perspective or to voice support for campus community members and provide information on related policies or programming.

Campuswide Emails: Policy

Divisions, colleges and departments and other offices may occasionally need to send informational communications to the entire campus community. 

In order to avoid overlapping messaging and ensure that all campus communications agree with university style, all campuswide email messages must be reviewed and scheduled through University Communications and Marketing prior to deployment. 

To submit for review, please send email content and proposed date/time of deployment to [email protected] at least one week prior to deployment. 

For more on campus policy around email and large mailings, please see Campus Administrative Policy 1222.

Campuswide Emails: Current Events

Cal Poly’s general practice is to offer campuswide communications on current events only when they have a direct impact on a majority of our campus community or on higher education specifically. The decision to send a campuswide note is always made after careful consideration and consultation by the President and President’s Cabinet.

With a campus community of nearly 25,000 people, almost all current events can have a direct or indirect impact on some portion of our student body and/or faculty and staff workforce. This communications practice is in place to help avoid differing expectations around what does or does not warrant a campuswide comment; to help ensure the university always communicates in a fair and consistent manner; and to avoid over-communicating to the campus community and diluting the voice of Cal Poly’s leadership.

There will be cases in which a campuswide message from university administration has not been issued (because it does not meet the parameters detailed above), but a message from an office, division or department’s leadership to a targeted audience is deemed appropriate. In addition, alternative forms of communication and outreach (including web postings or social media) may occur for certain situations.

University Communications and Marketing is always available to discuss these scenarios and offer counsel on how best to provide clear and direct communication to a target audience.Please contact Matt Lazier, Assistant Vice President for Communications and Media Relations.

Student and Employee Resources

Cal Poly provides a wealth of resources on a wide variety of topics, for both students and employees. Please feel free to include these resources as appropriate in targeted messaging at the division, college, student and employee level.