Policies and Procedures

Purpose

Towson University publishes news and announcements in a blog format, accompanied by a system wide email announcement linked to full blog articles. TU Today serves as the university’s official means of communication with faculty, staff and students. It decreases the number of all-campus email messages and provides an accessible archive of past news and announcements. TU Today can be accessed through computers, tablets and mobile devices.

Overview

The TU Today email announcement is distributed daily with the headlines and short descriptions of all new posts. Headlines are hyperlinked to the full posts. Announcements are allowed to be posted a maximum of three times per week under the condition that the headline is altered to reflect something new each time. Posts that do not follow this new policy will be removed.  To request assistance with an announcement, please contact TU Today Administrator Pam Gorsuch.

TU Today email messages are sent to all @students.towson.edu and @towson.edu email accounts. In accordance with TU policies, students, faculty and staff cannot unsubscribe from the mailing list.

The TU Today website offers an archive of past TU Today announcements. Users can browse announcements in chronological order or use the search feature to find a specific post.

Procedures and Protocol

Contributing Process and Whom to Contact:

All TU Today announcements must be approved by the appropriate authority. Approval procedures vary by division and department, but the Vice Presidents, Deans and the Director of Athletics are the final authority on posts for their respective areas. Once an announcement has been approved, it should be sent to the appropriate divisional representative for posting. Any member of the campus community may contribute submissions to TU Today via his or her appropriate representative, subject to provisions set forth in this policy.

Acceptable usages:

  • To disseminate information about policies, procedures and operations.
  • To announce faculty and/or staff training and development programs.
  • To announce service interruptions and closings due to planned maintenance, inclement weather, or emergency situations.
  • To announce significant structural and organizational changes.
  • College/major specific announcements.
  • Kudos announcements.

Unacceptable Uses:

TU Today is not a promotional tool for individuals, research or programs outside the university community. The following types of Announcements are NOT permitted on TU Today :

  • Announcements for off-campus events or organizations that are not affiliated or endorsed by Towson University.
  • Announcements for goods or services not sanctioned by and/or unrelated to university proceedings or functions.
  • Announcements for employment opportunities. Towson University has other venues for university-related job postings.
  • Personal or commercial announcements and announcements promoting personal, political or religious viewpoints.
  • Announcements for non-university sponsored sales, parties, stores, restaurants or similar for-profit events.
  • Announcements affecting only a small portion of the university community, such as an individual class or department.
  • Birthday announcements.

Personnel Announcements: Information regarding new hires, retirements, or deaths at the university is managed and published at the discretion of University Marketing.

Events

The university uses the Events Master Calendar for posting about events. For more information, please refer to the Master Calendar website.

Events featured in the TU Today email are based on the EventScore from Localist. The EventScore is partially determined by things like clicks, amount of time spent on the event page, “I’m interested”, shares, etc. are all taken into account. It is a special formula designed and owned by Localist.

Similar to how Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pull content based on relevance, TU Today does the same thing with events within the email. It provides recipients with an edited feed of what others are interested in or planning on attending.

Divisional Representatives

Administration and Finance
Pamela Gorsuch
Meredith Taylor

Athletics
Ari Bard

Inclusion & Institutional Equity
Amy Rinnier
Dana Skabar

Operations and Human Resources
Irene Lam
Kimberly Nelson

Office of the Provost
Kameron Crump – Provost’s Office
Jerri Sumwalt – Provost’s Office
Cassandra McCarthy – College of Business and Economics
Kendall Miller – College of Education
Monica Pasko – College of Education
Laura Malkus – College of Fine Arts and Communication
Cassidy McGinty – College of Health Professions
Dennis Shepard – College of Health Professions
Andrew Rosenblum – College of Liberal Arts
Sharita Peoples – College of Liberal Arts
Amanda Charles – Fisher College of Science and Mathematics
Arlene Ceribelli – Graduate Studies Office
Becca Walsh – Graduate Studies Office
Robin Walczak – Graduate Studies Office
Alana Gregory – Honors College
Gail Gibbs – ISSO
Robin Ace – ISSO
Cynthia Baker – Library
Joyce Garczynski – Library
Chris Metschulat – Registrar’s Office
Jacklyn Fisher – Study Abroad & Away 
Nick Campbell – Study Abroad & Away 

Strategic Partnerships and Applied Research
Arthur Smith

Student Affairs
Judy Rixham
Greg Primrose
Romy Hübler

Students can send requests to the Student Affairs contacts.

University Advancement
Margaret Paulson
Karen Powell 

University Marketing
Jamie Abell
Pam Gorsuch

Individuals who would like to be added to the list of TU Today representatives must contact their vice president or dean. The vice president/dean will then notify Pam Gorsuch to have that individual as an authorized contributor.

Accountability

Proofread content carefully before submitting announcements.

  • Misuse, abuse, or overuse may result in restriction or termination of posting rights.
  • Repeated inaccuracies that require posting/updating corrections, retractions or revisions may result in restriction or termination of posting rights.

All submissions are screened by University Marketing Specialists. All submissions are edited for clarity and accordance with the TU Web Style Guide (based on the Associated Press style guide). University Marketing is not responsible for correcting erroneous information in submissions, such as incorrectly reported dates, times, locations, event details, policies or procedures.