Announcements provides the Graduate School community with weekly news, registrar information, updates, events, advocacy items, resources, services, and other items of interest to graduate and professional students and the graduate fields.  

Announcements posts 50 weeks per year. We do not post over winter break or the week following winter break. If a staff holiday falls on Monday, we post on the first day back from the break.

We send to all current, active Graduate School students (including Geneva and Cornell Tech), the graduate field assistants and directors of graduate study, vice provosts and academic deans, Graduate School staff, and Cornell staff who opt in. Lists are updated each semester.

Announcements uses the following organizational structure, provided we have content for each section. 

• Campus or Graduate School Updates
• Registrar
• News
• Student/Alumni Spotlight
• Kudos
• Graduate Students and Alumni in the News
• Ask a Dean (occasional)
• From the GPSA (occasional)
• Tips and Takeaways (occasional)
• Graduate School Programs events list
• Big Red Barn event listing
• International Update
• Graduate School Career Programs
• Cornell and Outside Career Opportunities
• Teaching Support
• Fellowships, Postdocs, and Awards
• Safety and Wellness
• Around Campus and the Community

The Graduate School accepts submissions from Graduate School units, official college offices or units, and external nonprofits (primarily fellowship announcements). In addition, we accept Kudos and Ask a Dean submissions from students and the graduate fields. Our policies for inclusion are listed below. 

Announcements submissions are accepted until Friday at noon. We post Announcements on Monday evening unless it’s a holiday weekend or over winter break.

Ask a Dean

• Open only to current graduate students with a NetID.
• The submission email is only published in Announcements to prevent external audiences from sending emails.
• Students can ask any question directly related to graduate study at Cornell and receive an answer from a dean.
• All questions will be answered, but not all answers will be posted in Announcements and on the website. 
• All answers posted in Announcements and on the website are anonymized.

Events

• Events must be open to and relevant for graduate and professional students.
• Events must be officially sponsored by a university office or official organization (for example, CFCU Free Summer Concert Series).
• Events must have a web presence/page to which we can link.
• Most events outside the Graduate School will be published in the Cornell events calendar.

Funding

• All funding/fellowship submissions must have a website link for more information.
• We will only post the name, deadline, a sentence about the opportunity, and a link to the official announcement/application.

Images

• All submitted images must have credits included with the submission.
• We do not post images copied from the internet or other sources without either explicit permission or unless their rights are already secured (for example, stock footage).
• Images of children MUST have a release form signed by their parent or guardian.
• Submitted images/candid photos of students must have permission from the person(s) depicted. For example, an image submitted for Kudos must have the individual’s permission.

Kudos

• Students mentioned in Kudos must be in good standing.
• Students must submit via Qualtrics form, the link for which can be found in Announcements.
• The submission must have approval of the person(s) being mentioned.
• All Kudos must be verified via websites or other documentation. For example, we can’t post award winners unless we can find the information on an official website.
• We cannot use screenshots of social media posts unless we can verify the information via an outside source and we have explicit permission from the person being mentioned. We will ask the submitter to secure permission.

Research Studies

• We do not promote in process student research or calls for research subjects.
• We do not promote research studies or calls for research subjects from university units or external entities.

Spotlights

• Students must be in good standing at the time of the original publication.
• Alumni being spotlighted must have graduated officially.

Student Organization Submissions

• We do not promote activities or events sponsored by student organizations except under all of the following circumstances.
  • Graduate School or one of our partner units is co-sponsoring the event.
  • Student organization must be in CampusGroups.
  • Must have a webpage or online event listing with the complete information posted.
  • Must be open to all Graduate School students.

Surveys

• We do not publicize requests for surveys other than those that originate from within the Graduate School.

Use a strong headline.

Use the subject line to “hook” readers and prompt readers to open the newsletter and read your content.

Include a clear call to action.

If your posting includes a call to action, make it clear and compelling with links and key phrases. Make it easy for readers to see what action to take.

Keep it as brief as possible!

If you have content that absolutely requires more length, post it on your website and send us a short summary with the link. Also remember, the most important information should be placed at the top of the email. Audiences do not read lengthy text in an email.

Include hyperlinks.

Make it as easy as possible for your readers to find relevant or additional information by including links.

Break up heavy text with bullets and lists.

Use bullets or lists, and when relaying longer information, be sure to break every few sentences to create short, easy-to-read paragraphs. White space makes it easier to read and retain information.

Include images.

Whenever possible, include an image to keep your content engaging. Be sure the images you select are clear, crisp, and not blurred. Remember: Users are reading Announcements in multiple formats including on mobile devices. Make sure your image is readable on small formats. Posters or flyers don’t work as well as simple images.

Avoid images with lots of text, including posters or flyers. In addition to potential readability issues due to a user’s screen size, text-heavy images pose accessibility issues. Alternative (“alt”) text must be entered for each image to allow individuals using assistive technology to access the same content. There is a character cap on alt text, which means that these users might not be able to access all of the information presented visually.

You can use photos of students in your communities, provided you have the appropriate permissions. Consider to stock photo services or using Cornell’s image library. In both cases, rights are included.  

Please include photo credits with the image.

Run your announcement for no more than two consecutive weeks.

People need to see something about seven times before they take action, but that seven times should be in different mediums. Advertise your event through multiple channels. Our metrics show that click throughs drop off sharply after the second consecutive week of running an announcement.