MBA Program Office

Wharton MBA Email Policy

What to consider before sending an email
Email announcement guidelines

What to Consider before Sending an Email

While Email is a great communication tool, the number one complaint of many students surrounds the number of emails that they receive on a daily basis. It is important to remember that e-mail is intended primarily as a personal communication tool for interacting with people whom you know and with whom you have a pre-existing relationship. It is not intended to be a "broadcast" medium, nor is it effective as such.

In recent years students and members of the Wharton Administration worked together to create a suite of services to help alleviate the “email overload” problem while meeting the Wharton’s communication requirements. Under most circumstances, we suggest that you consider using these services in lieu of email.

E-Mail Announcement Guidelines
In cases where you feel an email is the appropriate mechanism to inform a portion of the Wharton community, the following rules and guidelines apply: Wharton students can disseminate information to each other and the wider Wharton community by using email distribution lists. These lists include:

Club/Affinity Group Lists (these lists should be used whenever possible)
Cohort Lists
Class Lists (whg08 and whg09)
Wharton Faculty and Staff Lists

When a mailing list exists, students must use the mailing list (rather than sending e-mail to the same people using individual e-mail addresses). Any attempts to bypass mailing lists (and their restrictions and requirements) are prohibited.

The use of Wharton email is a privilege. Abuse of these policies could result in the deactivation of your Wharton email account. For more information regarding the acceptable use of email resources, go to http://spike.wharton.upenn.edu/consult/wharcomp/policies.cfm.

Club/Affinity Group Lists
Club and Affinity Group email lists should be used whenever possible. All Wharton clubs and groups are encouraged to create a public e-mail distribution list for their members. The lists are easy to create and enable all members to communicate with each other by typing in one e-mail address. The only caveat is that the e-mail distribution list has to be for Wharton students and should be of a nature that will enhance the Wharton experience. Mail distribution lists that do not fit these simple criteria will not be created. Mail distribution lists are great for clubs, classes, team assignments, etc. In consideration of your fellow classmates, please set the expiration date for only as long as you need it (the general guideline is one year or less).

Directions for creating e-mail distribution lists
Go to mySPIKE and type in your username and password.
Click on the right top button, "My Account@Wharton."
Go to "My Mailing Lists," and click on "Create a New Mailing list."
Fill out the necessary fields on the next page.
Scroll back to the top of the page, type in your username and password and click submit.

Cohort Lists
Wharton Computing has created email lists for all cohorts. These lists are active for your two years at Wharton. Cohort Lists are “closed lists”, meaning that you must be on the list to send emails through it. Cohort Lists are not moderated, so any member of a cohort can send emails to his/her Cohort through this list.

Cohort lists are not to be used to resend information previously sent in a class-wide email.

Class Lists
The first- and second-year MBA student mailing lists, whg08@lists.wharton.upenn.edu and whg09@lists.wharton.upenn.edu, route to the Graduate Division for approval and then, if approved, go to the class. Class e-mails are reviewed twice daily, M-F. Be aware that messages that are long, and/or contain attachments or graphics cannot be sent to the class e-mail lists. The maximum size of an email that can be sent to the list is 800 KB. Here are the guidelines, created jointly by the WGA and the MBA Program Office, for what messages can be sent to the class e-mail lists:

• Announcements of schoolwide significance from the Wharton administration • Announcements of schoolwide significance from the Wharton Graduate Association

• Announcements of activities that interest the entire student body. Only one e-mail per event will be accepted, although WGA Conferences are allowed 2 each. Reminder messages can be posted in MBA Announcements. Event organizers also can post events on the MySPIKE on-line calendar (directions below).

• One introductory e-mail at the beginning of the fall semester from official WGA clubs. The e-mail should include some or all of the following: club introduction, how to join, whether the club will have a table at Club Day, and time and place of the first meeting. The e-mail should also encourage students to sign up for the club's email distribution list through "My Account@Wharton"

E-mail sent to whg class lists will be rejected if it contains or promotes the following:

Announcements of regularly scheduled club meetings
Employer Information Sessions (and any e-mail sent by recruiters)
Club games or activities
Lost & Found (MBA Talk is a better place for this)
Items for sale (MBA Talk, or University newsgroups, i.e., For Sale At Penn, are better places to sell goods since the entire University can access these newsgroups.)
E-mail describing your personal opinion on world events. Use the newsgroups and community webCafes intended for opinion and discussion instead.
Graphics/and or content which push the email past the 800 KB size limit.

Faculty and Staff Lists
Students who wish to send an email to members of the Wharton faculty or staff, or a subset thereof, should contact the MBA Program Office with their request. If the email is deemed appropriate, the MBA Program Office will forward your email to the correct mailing list. When a mailing list exists, students must use the mailing list (rather than sending e-mail to the same people using individual e-mail addresses). Attempts to bypass mailing lists (and their restrictions and requirements) are prohibited.

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