UAB will begin publishing GreenMail, an electronic newsletter for its entire student population, Wednesday, March 18.

The newsletter will be distributed automatically via e-mail once every two weeks to people with a valid BlazerID and current student status; this includes undergraduate, graduate and professional school students. Others who would like to receive it will have the option of subscribing through a listserv mechanism.

“On any university campus there are deadlines and announcements that are of particular interest to students,” said UAB President Carol Garrison. “That’s even more the case at UAB, which is so vibrant and offers so many options.

“GreenMail will be a timely, cost-efficient and environmentally friendly way to deliver this sort of news and information and help foster a sense of university community,” Garrison said, adding that UAB is also exploring how to deliver GreenMail through Facebook and Twitter.

The president noted that the new publication is not designed to take the place of Kaleidoscope, the university’s student-run newspaper. Instead, GreenMail is intended to communicate information from an institutional perspective. In some ways it is modeled on The eReporter, the university’s electronic newsletter for faculty and staff that is distributed via e-mail twice weekly and includes information on everything from policies and breakthrough UAB research to upcoming performances at the Alys Stephens Center.

GreenMail is designed to complement BlazerNET, which will continue to serve as the institution’s password-secured portal for student registration and financial aid.

GreenMail will be a joint effort by the offices of the Provost, Student Affairs, Public Relations & Marketing, and Information Technology. It will be the recommended alternative to mass e-mails to the student body. To request that your news or information be shared in GreenMail, send e-mail to greenmail@uab.edu or use the form at www.uab.edu/publicity; announcements should relate to official university business or to university-sponsored activities for students.

If you are not a UAB student and would like to receive GreenMail, send a blank e-mail to GreenMail-subscribe-request@listserv.uab.edu and your request will be processed.