Downstate creates and manages a number of Public Mailing Lists (PMLs, also known as Distribution Groups). Email sent to a PML goes to all the members of the list, similar to a listserv. Unlike a listserv, however, users cannot add / remove themselves by subscribing or unsubscribing. Students are added/removed by automation. Faculty and employees are added/removed by one of the PML's "Owners" which usually include the degree program chair/director and administrator. Information Services staff can also edit these lists.
Academic lists are defined by their college and degree program or similar attribute.
Users are added to one list, known as a "child" list. Child lists can then be recombined as members of a "parent" list. For example, a student in the SOHP Physician Assistant degree program is a member on one PML: SOHP-PA-Students.
That mailing list is also reused by making it a member on other lists, including:
The SOHP-PA public mailing list. (The other member of the SOHP-PA list is SOHP-PA-FacultyStaff.) Email sent to SOHP-PA goes to everyone in the Physician Assistant program — their students, faculty and staff — by going to the two sublists that are members of SOHP-PA.
The SOHP-AllStudents public mailing list. Each of the various SOHP degree program Students lists are members on this PML. Email sent here will reach the students in all SOHP degree programs.
Adding a person to just one list and then recombining lists into different "superlists" has multiple advantages:
- Easier to maintain via automation (matriculation, graduation)
- Easier to create unique combinations to reach specific groups of people
Note that only certain employees in the degree programs and in Student Affairs can send email into the lists. Here are the current academic Public Mailing Lists: each has a "-Students" and "-FacultyStaff" sublist.
School of Health Professions:
SOHP-DeansOffice
SOHP-AllPrograms, SOHP-AllStudents, SOHP-AllFacultyStaff
SOHP-ABA: Applied Behavior Analysis
SOHP-DMI: Diagnostic Medical Imaging
SOHP-HINF: Healthcare Informatics
SOHP-MW: Midwifery
SOHP-OT: Occupational Therapy
SOHP-OTD: Occupational Therapy Doctorate
SOHP-PA: Physician Assistant
SOHP-PT: Physical Therapy
College of Nursing:
Nursing-AllPrograms, Nursing-AllStudents, Nursing-AllFacultyStaff
Nursing DNP Students: Nursing Doctorate
Nursing-NACC-Students: Accelerated RN Program
Nursing-NEMS-Students: Nursing Education Masters
Nursing-NP-Students: Nursing Graduate Programs
Nursing-RN-Students: Nursing RN Program