UM Today Management

Reining in email

Most people receive more email than they want. One cause of this is the "write once, send to many" operation which email allows. Since it's as easy to send a message to many people as it is to send it to just one, email has become the method of choice for most targeted communication. Because your address is just one of dozens (or hundreds) on a list, the sender often isn't aware of whether you are interested in what they have to say. So you will often find items in your inbox that don't pertain to you. And because there are multiple senders, you get messages from many different sources all day long.

While no system is perfect, UM Today attempts to relieve a few of these problems:

• It helps message senders to better target their recipients. If they want to say something about events which matter only to their departments, UM Today helps them target just their departments instead of blanketing all of campus.
• It packages all the messages into a single list which is available in an email message (sent once daily) and in myOleMiss (always available).
• The list is organized by message type, such as "Campus Events," "Class News," etc.
• "Campus Events" are sorted into those occurring today and those within the next week. Any further in the future than that aren't shown.
• Because email may not be the best way of notifying some people, messages are also posted within myOleMiss, and some of them appear on the UM home page.

Pay attention!

One bit of feedback we repeatedly hear is "Nobody reads it." To be fair, we also heard this about the old system when individual emails were sent: "I just delete those emails." While recipients are free to do that, they should understand that some of the announcements they receive might be important to them and they won't know which if they are simply deleted. UM Today shows only the subjects, summaries, and dates of messages to help readers skim through the list.

Manage your messages

To reduce the number of messages you see, use the "Do Not Show" option. Log into myOleMiss to see your UM Today list and, as you hover your mouse over the messages, you'll see a red button appear at the top right of each message. Click it to immediately delete it and any future appearances of that message.

Take Charge!

Don't like the order of the messages you get? You can rearrange them or choose not to receive them by setting your UM Today "Preferences." You can even change the format for the daily email, or choose not to receive it at all. Simply log into myOleMiss and choose Preferences at the top of the UM Today page. They're *your* preferences: Set them!

Missed something?

The "Message History" option available at the top of the list in myOleMiss. Using that form you can retrieve lists of messages based on various criteria. This is especially helpful if you've accidentally selected "Do Not Show" for a message you actually needed, or if you want to look back at an announcement that has expired.

Feedback welcomed

We appreciate the received feedback with suggestions for improvement. Many of the features listed are the result of this feedback, and more are in the works. Please send helpful suggestions to web@olemiss.edu.