1. Disable email forwarding from internal SFU email accounts to external accounts.
2. Retire the Alumni Email Forwarding Service.3. Ensure that all bulk email sent to external accounts have an unsubscribe option.4. Modify the SFU Maillist service to disallow the sending of email to external email accounts.
Thanks Michael,I believe that SFU-IT has other options that would be better for us. If you look at other universities, they are taking approaches that are not as drastic as SFU:here is a quote from the link you included."Bulk emails from ‘stanford.edu’ domainHow will this impact bulk emails sent from the “stanford.edu” domain? To send emails through third-party email marketing platforms, you must refer to the vendor’s documentation and work with University IT (UIT) to complete the domain authentication process.The steps involved in the authentication process vary by the vendor. In most cases, the vendor will ask to publish a Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM) record that will automatically authenticate emails sent from the “stanford.edu” domain. While you may see reference to this in your vendor’s documentation, changes to the Stanford Sender Policy Framework (SPF) record are neither a supported option nor necessary to meet authentication requirements.You may already have the necessary message authentication in place. We recommend you verify this, and follow the procedures below if you need assistance adding necessary records.To streamline the UIT support process:Locate your vendor’s documentation on email domain authentication. You can find guidance for Mailchimp and other commonly used email marketing platforms at Stanford on this UIT service page.Submit a Help ticket to UIT. Depending on the platform, UIT will need specific information from your account to update the domain.Bulk emails from a subdomainIf your sending address is in a subdomain (e.g., yourdept.stanford.edu), then you will likely need additional records set up to meet Google and Yahoo’s guidelines. In this case, you must also look up the vendor’s documentation for email domain authentication and submit a Help ticket. UIT will provide consultation and assistance setting up the records you need.”I think Stanford is struggling with the same problem - but probably has more IT resources than SFU to deal with it ;-)HaraldOn Jan 16, 2024, at 6:53 PM, Michael Hathaway <michael_hathaway@sfu.ca> wrote:Thanks, Harald.I believe that SFU-IT has other options that would be better for us. If you look at other universities, they are taking approaches that are not as drastic as SFU:Here are the guidelines from Google itself:I am no tech expert, and perhaps SFU's current email system makes following these guidelines difficult but it would be great to get a better explanation from SFU-IT about the possibilities to cause less pain for faculty who have worked hard to make SFU an "engaged university."best, Michael
Michael J. Hathaway
Professor of Anthropology
Simon Fraser UniversityUnceded Indigenous Coast Salish TerritoriesOn Tue, Jan 16, 2024 at 5:30 PM Harald Hutter <harald_hutter@sfu.ca> wrote:Hi Oliver,as far as I understand, SFU is responding to changes at Google and Yahoo.To quote from emails I got from (Faculty of Science) IT services:In February 2024, Google and Yahoo will be introducing changes to help them combat spam and phishing attacks. Unless we change SFU’s current email practices, these new requirements will directly impede SFU’s ability to send email to all Google and Yahoo accounts, including those of prospective students.The changes needed to our current email practices include, but are not limited to:1. Disable email forwarding from internal SFU email accounts to external accounts.2. Retire the Alumni Email Forwarding Service.3. Ensure that all bulk email sent to external accounts have an unsubscribe option.4. Modify the SFU Maillist service to disallow the sending of email to external email accounts.suggestions I received.IT Services suggests...-create a contact group (or distribution list) in your email tool of choice and send mail that way - this basically just puts everyone into the cc or bcc field of an email message. If they're in the cc field, people can reply-all to reply to everyone, but this may not be desirable.- For research etc., consider creating a Team in SFU Teams. Microsoft Teams supports external invited guests, and if many of your colleagues are in BC colleges and universities, they're likely already using Teams.-something like Google Groups might suit your needs. If you search for "public listserv", you might find other alternatives too.A warning... SFU alumni emails will no longer be forwarded, and those emails will not be obvious in the maillists.Please don't bother complaining about this to us, or even to SFU IT Services- it is beyond their control. If you need help, make a ticket https://it-support.science.sfu.ca/I hope this helps.HaraldOn Jan 16, 2024, at 11:59 AM, Oliver Schulte <oschulte@cs.sfu.ca> wrote:Hi all,I wonder if anyone else is concerned about the upcoming removal of external recipients from our mailing lists. (Feb 1 this year, details below). Mail lists allow SFU faculty, departments, and other users to reach many users, including external users, both at SFU and outside SFU.While SFU ITS wants to stop us from using maillists with external recipients, UBC supports this service.
Users (internal or external to UBC) are able to manage their own subscriptions through the web dashboard....All active Staff and Faculty can sponsor the creation of new mailing lists with the use of a FASmail accountI believe it is important that SFU match the email services that UBC offers to its users. What a UBC user can do with email, an SFU user should be able to do also.UBC is not the only peer institution that offers maillists with external recipients. You also have this capability if you work at UVic, U of Toronto, and the U of Alberta. In fact I would expect that SFU is the only Canadian university that does not want to offer its users this basic functionality (but I have not checked every other university).Nor are outgoing maillists the only email service SFU ITS wants to take away.As I see it, SFU faculty have done well in competing in teaching and research on a national level. This will be made more difficult if we have worse IT support for basic communication and productivity functions.Regards,Oliver---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: IT Services <itsinfo@sfu.ca>
Date: Tue, Jan 2, 2024 at 10:02 AM
Subject: Important update: Maillist changes in effect by February 1, 2024
To: its-external-maillist-managers@sfu.ca <its-external-maillist-managers@sfu.ca>SFU Maillist users,
In the new year, SFU will be activating strict email protocols to comply with new industry-wide email regulations set by external email providers.
In February 2024, Google and Yahoo! will introduce changes to help combat spam and phishing attacks. It is expected many other email providers will make similar changes to their email practices and large organizations like SFU will need to make changes to comply with these new regulations. These necessary updates to our email protocols will ensure that SFU emails continue to be received by other email services.
The change: SFU Maillists will be restricted to sending to SFU email addresses only. Starting February 1, 2024, non-SFU email accounts will not receive emails from SFU Maillists.
The impact: Maillist owners and managers are encouraged to update their lists. A separate message will be sent by the beginning of the year listing each of your maillists that contains at least one non-SFU address.
Updating lists: Log in to the SFU Maillist application (https://maillist.sfu.ca). Select a list you own or manage and view the “Maillist members” tab. For any address in the list that does not end with “sfu.ca”, either uncheck the “Deliver To User” checkbox or click the trashcan icon to delete the entry altogether. Click “Save Changes” when you have unselected or deleted all external members. You can check and update your lists anytime to address necessary changes.
Note: If you wish to keep a copy of the membership before making changes, use the “Download addresses to file” button to save a copy of the email addresses to a file on your computer.
Thank you,
SFU IT Services