Text Messaging Policy - 61.24
College Procedure Number/Title:
Howard Community College (HCC) uses a variety of channels to communicate with students, faculty, and staff, including its website, email, social media, and printed materials. Text messaging is a communications channel that serves to relay important and time-sensitive information that is critical to student success, health, and safety.
Specific authorized users and departments at the college may use text messages to disseminate the following types of information:
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- Emergencies, crisis situations, or significant disruptions to college operations.
- Information critical to student success, including important deadlines.
- Other critical messages as determined by the president, and president’s team or their designees.
This policy does not apply to faculty who use texting as a pedagogical method to communicate with students for the purposes of delivering instruction or support within their courses. The expectation is that texting is used only for the duration of the course.
College-issued text messages may not be used for:
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- Personal matters (e.g., items for sale or farewell messages)
- Sending or receiving confidential information (e.g., social security numbers, credit card numbers, or other personally identifiable information)
- General information or generic messages to large populations, such as all students or all faculty
- Solicitations on behalf of individuals or groups of students (e.g., event ticket sales)
Text messages may not be used as the sole means of communicating an essential message or announcement. The text message must be supplemented by some other means of communication, such as an email or paper notice, to ensure that all students receive the information.
Students, faculty, and staff are automatically subscribed to emergency text message alerts, with the ability to opt-out at any time. Students have the ability to opt in to additional text message alerts when applying to the college or within myHCC and will have the ability to opt out or opt in at any time.
The college expects that text message recipients read text correspondence in a timely and consistent manner. Students are encouraged, but not required, to respond to text messages when a response is solicited.
Text messages must be approved by specific authorized users, under the supervision of the Office of Public Relations and Marketing.
Effective Date: 06/09/22
President's Office Use: EDPRM