Critical messages should probably be sent in multiple ways, therefore, such as through standard postal mail, Web postings, and press releases. Messages should be short. Long messages are less likely to be fully read by the students plus they have the potential of using up shared disk space and forcing expensive expansions of the mail system. An alternative to a long message is to publish the information on a Web site and then send the URL of the posting as a mail message to students. Similarly, attachments to messages should be short.
Attachments are even more likely than the messages themselves to fill up our disk storage.
Multiply that by 25,500 students and such an attachment would take up 484MB of disk space. For these and other reasons, University officials will have to exercise judgment about the medium of choice when deciding to employ e-mail to communicate with students. Important messages with assured delivery requirements should be sent via both standard postal mail and e-mail. Messages that are directed to individual students and that affect the students standing in the University should likely be sent through postal mail as well as e-mail. The official sending a message is responsible for determining its level of importance and for deciding which mode of communication to use in sending it.