Google Groups are a way to share information (files, emails, meetings, etc.) with a variety of people at once. Each Group has an email address created which allows someone to email one address and have it send to all members of the group. Groups are particularly useful for a Group manger to manually add and remove members for people that may change over time (student employees, team members, etc.). Google Groups can also manage access to resources, such as Shared Drives. This makes it so you only have to update the group of users in one location. 

Google has an extensive support article on using Google Groups.

Types of Google Groups

At UNI, there are two types of Google Groups- Administrative Google Groups and Custom Google Groups.

Administrative Google Groups

Administrative Google Groups are created automatically based on University data. Below are the different Administrative Groups that exist today:

• Department Google Groups are based on employment data

• Academic Google Groups are created based on class enrollment

• Position Classification Google Groups are based on how employees are classified by Human Resource Services

• Major/Minor Groups are based on declared majors, minors, and certifications

Custom Google Groups

Custom Google Groups are groups that aren't created automatically and instead controlled by anyone with the role of Manager for that Group.

Requesting a Google Group

To create a new Google Group, fill out the Service Hub New Google Group request.

How do I add members to a Group?

Once a Group is created, the Group manager will be able to add and remove members or make other members managers of the group. See Google's documentation on adding people to a Google Group.

How can I make someone else a manager of a Google Group?

Anyone with the role of Manager can change the role of someone else to become a manager instead. See Google's documentation on managing a Google Group.

Google Group settings

Group managers have access to update Group settings. This includes being able to rename the group.

Opting out of Google Groups

If you do not want to receive email to a Google Group you can unsubscribe from the group's email. See Google's documentation on unsubscribing from Group email.

How is a Google Group different from a departmental email account or email distribution list?

Departmental email accounts are accounts that have their own email address and login information to send and receive emails. For more information, see our Departmental email accounts article.

Email distribution lists are either created to email a large group of people (100+) based on UNI data. You can request an email list in Service Hub.