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Messaging students

Staff message students from several places in Unifuse: Send nudge on the student record, Draft outreach in the Advisor Brief, reminders in Appointments, the AI assistant, and campaigns. Every one of these goes through the institution’s contact policy before anything is sent.

Before you start

Section titled “Before you start”
  • You need send messages.
  • The student must have an email address or phone number on file for the channel you choose.

The composer

Section titled “The composer”

The dialog is titled Message , with the note that it goes through your institution’s contact policy.

  1. Choose Send by: Email or Text message. A channel with nothing on file is marked as such.
  2. For email, enter a Subject.
  3. Write the Message, then select Send.

What happens next

Section titled “What happens next”
ResultMeaning
SentThe message went out and is on the student’s contact history.
DeliveredThe provider confirmed delivery.
ScheduledIt is quiet hours; the message goes when they end.
Held for reviewThe student’s message budget for the window is used up. The message waits in the Review Queue.
Waiting for approvalThe message needs approval before it goes.
Not sentThe reason is shown, for example the student has opted out.

The contact gate

Section titled “The contact gate”

Checks run in this order:

  1. Consent. A student who has opted out of a channel (for example by texting STOP) is never messaged on it. Opt-outs cannot be overridden.
  2. Category. Replies to a student who wrote in are not budgeted and ignore quiet hours. Transactional messages (such as appointment reminders) are not budgeted but respect quiet hours. Proactive outreach uses the budget.
  3. Budget and spacing. By default one proactive message per student per seven days, at least 24 hours apart, across all channels.
  4. Collision. Two pending drafts to the same student are merged; conflicting ones are held.
  5. Approval. Where the institution requires it.
  6. Quiet hours. By default 21:00 to 08:00 Eastern; messages are deferred until they end.

Staff can send past the budget and quiet hours if the institution allows overrides, by giving a reason that is recorded in the audit log.

Students can text STOP (also stopall, unsubscribe, cancel, end, quit) to opt out of texts and START (also unstop, yes, subscribe) to opt back in. Campaign emails carry an unsubscribe link.

Section titled “Related”

View this page as Markdown for use with an AI assistant, or read the whole site at /llms.txt.