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Using Voicemail Distribution Lists

Administrative (Faculty/Staff) Use Only

In this Guide

Class Distribution Lists

It is easy to send a message to all students in your class. You do not have to build a distribution list and maintain it, because automated procedures rebuild course distribution lists nightly. Thus, your course list is always up to date. Voicemail class lists are available from 30 days prior to the start of the semester to 30 days after the semester has ended. At this time, however, course lists are limited to undergraduate students only as graduate and evening students do not yet have voice mailboxes. You can be assured that all undergraduates will have a voice mailbox, as other automated procedures create a mailbox for each new student as soon as s/he is admitted.

Here's how you send the message:

  1. Login to your voice mailbox as you normally do. (i.e. Dial 2-4006 and enter your mailbox number and password (PIN#) when prompted.)
  2. From the main menu, select option 5, which is "Call Handling".
  3. From the Call Handling menu, select option 6, which is "Boston College Distribution Lists".
  4. From the Boston College Distribution Lists menu, select option 2, which is "Students registered for a particular course".
  5. Select the appropriate term: 1=Fall, 2=Spring, 3=Summer.
  6. Enter the seven character alphanumeric course/section number followed by the pound key. For example, if the course were MC12301, you would enter 6212301, as the "M" and "C" are represented by "6" and "2", respectively.

    Once you do this, you may be prompted to make a department selection, as some department mnemonics equate to the same numeric values. In this example, the Accounting department (MA), the Organizational Studies department (MB), and Computer Science department (MC) all equate to "62". Thus, if you are attempting to send to a course in one of these departments, you would get a list of departments to select from (ex. For Accounting, press 1, for Organizational Studies, press 2, for Computer Science, press 3)
  7. At this point, verification takes place. The system checks to see that there is indeed a course for the number you have entered and whether or not you are authorized to send a message to the class.
  8. If you are authorized to send a message to the class, the system will tell you how many recipients are in the list, and will then prompt you to record your message. At the tone, record your message and press the pound key (#) to stop. Don't worry if you don't like the message you have recorded. When you press the pound key to stop recording, you will get a menu of choices:
    • 1 = Review the message you have recorded
    • 2 = Send the message
    • 4 = Re-record the message
    • 7 = Cancel the message altogether
  9. Once you have sent the message, you will be given the option to send the same message to another class. This allows you to send the exact same recorded message to multiple classes, if you so choose.
  10. You're done. You may hang up.

Department Distribution Lists

It is easy to send a message to all employees in your department who have a personal voice mailbox. You do not need to build a distribution list and maintain it because automated procedures rebuild departmental distribution lists nightly. Thus, your department list is always up to date. At this time, however, BC does not require that all employees have a personal voice mail account. Thus, only those individuals with a personal voice mailbox will receive your message. It is important to note that some department "group" voice mailboxes exist which are not affiliated with a particular individual. These "group" mailboxes are not included in distribution lists that are created.

To send the message

  1. Login to your voice mailbox as you normally do. (i.e. Dial 2-4006 and enter your mailbox number and password (PIN#) when prompted.)
  2. From the main menu, select option 5, which is "Call Handling".
  3. From the Call Handling menu, select option 6, which is "Boston College Distribution Lists".
  4. From the Boston College Distribution Lists menu, select option 1, which is "Employees in a department".
  5. Set the appropriate selection scope:
    • 1=Select all employees in a particular department and in all departments which report to it, or
    • 2=Select all employees in a particular department only.
    The selection here can have a major impact on the size of the selected list. For example, if you select option 1 and then go on to select the Academic Vice President's Office, your message will be targeted to all departments which report to the Academic Vice President as well as the Academic Vice President's Office itself. Individuals should use discretion when using option 1 to target a large subset of the organization, and should do so only after seeking approval from the highest level addressed by the message.

    The basic rule which governs authorization of access to these departmental distribution lists will help to prevent frivolous use of the service. The rule is that any employee can send a message to his/her own departmental unit and to any departmental unit below his/her department within the same branch of the university hierarchy. Examples of this are as follows:
    • A Student Accounts representative can send a message to the Student Account Office.
    • The Controller can send a message to the Student Account Office.
    • The Dean of A&S cannot send a message to the Student Accounts Office
    • An Accounts/Payable representative cannot sent a message to the Student Accounts Office. Both units report to the Controller, but Student Accounts does not report to Accounts Payable, so this is not allowed.
  6. Enter the six digit department number followed by the pound (#) key.
  7. At this point, verification takes place. The system checks to see that there is indeed a department for the six digit number that you entered and it determines whether or not you are authorized to send a message to the department(s).
  8. If you are authorized to send a message to the list, the system will tell you how many recipients are in the list, and will then prompt you to record your message. At the tone, record your message and press the pound key (#) to stop. Don't worry if you don't like the message you have recorded. When you press the pound key to stop recording, you will get a menu of choices:
    • 1 = Review the message you have recorded
    • 2 = Send the message
    • 4 = Re-record the message
    • 7 = Cancel the message altogether
  9. Once you have sent the message, you will be given the option to send the same message to another department list. This allows you to send the exact same recorded message to multiple departments, if you so choose.
  10. You're done. You may hang up.