Managing Google Groups at Michigan Tech

Google Groups provides an easy to use web-based management interface for list owners.  It allows you to add and remove members, moderate messages, change access settings. Please see the Google Groups Official Help page.

Requesting an email list

You can request an email list for your class or a departmental email list by following the instructions at Requesting an email list.

Adding members

Add new members directly to your Google Group Email List from the Manage interface. You can also change the role of a member to an Owner or a Manager or remove a member from your group email list.

Members outside of Michigan Tech

You will need to enable the Allow members external to this organization setting in the Google group or email list. By default, only those with Michigan Tech email addresses can be added to your new email list. 

1. Select My Groups 
2. Select the Manage link directly under the Google group name
3. Select Basic Permissions under the Permissions link on the left side of the interface.
4. Check the box to Allow members external to this organization.

Group settings

You can view the description of each group setting and how to modify them at Choose Settings for the Group. You can search for common tasks or questions the Google Groups Help for more information.

• General
• Member privacy
• Posting policies
• Email options
• Member moderation

Customize who get the list replies

1. Select Email Options under Group Settings
2. Select Post replies to
3. Select Send replies to group posts
4. Set the desired option
   • All group members
   • Group managers only 
   • Group owners only
   • The author of the message only
   • Sender chooses recipient
   • A custom address

One case example would be instructors who would like to have students only reply to the instructor or the TAs of the class. The instructor would select that only owners can post to the list, not all members using the class list creation tool. Once created, the instructor can set for replies to go to owners, managers and owners, or another option. Instruct the students to select Reply, not Reply All, or they will get a bounce back message from the list.

Finding and joining a group

If you would like to join an available Michigan Tech Google Group, please visit All Groups and search for the group in the list. Then, you can select Join group or Ask to join group. 

If neither button appears, you can contact the group owner directly to ask to join the group. If the owner has allowed contact, you can add +managers to the group email to contact the owner. For example, to contact the owner of a group named group-l@mtu.edu, you would use group-l+managers@mtu.edu.

You can use the instructions at Find and Join a Group for more information.