Important beginning of year emails failed to sent to the undergraduate email list of over 10,000 students due to a technical glitch in the updated email network.
On October 2nd, the Information Systems Services (ISS) desk circulated an email to undergraduate students informing them that technical difficulties with the mailing list meant that some students had not received emails sent to them.
“An unexpected issue arose where messages were not getting delivered to all students on our largest mailing list – all registered undergraduates. We were made aware of this when some students reported to the Students’ Union that they had not received some messages,” said Justin Doyle, teaching and learning and research services manager with ISS.
“Once brought to our attention we discovered that the Google infrastructure placed an automatic limit on this list due to its size. Messages to this list were getting delivered to approximately half of the students,” Doyle continued.
The Students’ Union were the first to raise the issue. “When it happened originally was when Domhnaill (Harkin) sent out his welfare email and during class rep period, there was a mix up. We would have contacted everyone and let class reps know,” said James Donoghue, Education Officer.
Donoghue added, “We were aware of the problem, we tried as best as we could to make sure every student was notified of what was going on. Lists have been updated and they’re probably more modern than they would have been in the past so there was a few glitches.”
Emails from the Students’ Union that students failed to receive include an information email about the March for Choice in Dublin on September 26th and an email detailing the class rep candidates for each class group and the time and venue in which voting for the reps would take place.
Students also reported that they failed to receive emails from some lecturers at the start of the semester detailing the module description and module logistics.
The problem was quickly rectified when brought to the attention of ISS who liaised with Google to get the issue resolved as quickly as possible.
The undergraduate mailing list went through a significant upgrade this year to resolve various software issues. The ISS desk advised all relevant bodies that would typically email undergraduate mailing lists to resend any emails that were sent during the time period in which the mailing list was down.
Katie O’Neill
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