Information Technology Services

If you would like to create a Google Group, visit Identity Self Service. Then, follow the instructions below to access your group.

You can access your Google group by specifying the Brandeis domain on Google groups's webpage.

You can also access your Google group by selecting groups from your email.

Once your Google Group is created, you can invite members to join the Group or manually add members yourself.

Invite Members to Join a Group

1. Click the Members link on the right-side of the Group's homepage, next to the gear icon.
2. Select the green Manage tab.
3. Select the blue Invite tab.
4. Add one or more email addresses of members to be added to the group.
5. Write an invitation message (required) to introduce the Group to new members.
6. Click the Send invites button to send the invitations.

Manually Add Members to a Group

1. Follow steps 1 through 3 from above.
2. Select the Add Members Directly tab.
3. Add the email addresses of the members to be added to the group.
4. Write a welcome message (required) to introduce the group to new members.
5. Select a default subscription setting for your group members. Members can customize this setting later from their own account.
6. Click the Add button.

Google Groups participants can be assigned one of the following roles:

• Member — Can read the archives and post messages.
• Manager — Can approve pending messages and members and change group settings.
• Owner — Can remove the Group in addition to managing all settings.

Group managers and owners control the Group's settings and memberships. They can add and invite new members, unsubscribe members, decide how the Group is accessed and determine if a Group is searchable within the Groups directory.

Differences Between an Owner and a Manager

The original Group owner is the person who created the Group, invited the first members and chose the Group's posting and access settings.

Once the owner selects a member to be a manager, both the owner and the manager can approve posts, invite new members, create managers and change the group's management settings. Only the owner, however, can create a co-owner, transfer ownership to another user or remove the group.

Google Groups allow Owners and Managers to turn on or turn off messaging moderating for their Group.

1. Sign in to Google Groups.
2. Click the name of a group.
3. On the left, click Group Settings.
4. Select your moderation option: Moderate all messages, Moderate messages from non-members, or No moderation.
5. To review messages from new members, select New member posts are moderated.
6. (Optional) To send a notification when a moderated message is rejected, for Rejected message notification, click On.
7. (Optional) To send a message with the notification, check the box and write your default message in the text field.
8. Click Save.

Prevent Posting from a Google Group

Google Groups allow Owners or Managers to stop members from posting messages to their Google Groups.

1. Sign in to Google Groups.
2. Click the name of a group.
3. On the left, click Group Settings.
4. Under General, go to Who can post and select a setting.
5. (Optional) To specify who can see messages, under Who can view conversations, select a setting.
6. Under Posting Policies, go to Who can post as a group and select a setting.
7. Click Save Changes.

Group Owners and Managers can set up auto replies for their groups. Auto replies are messages sent automatically when people email the group. These replies let senders know their messages have been received.

If message moderation is turned on, an auto reply is sent only after a message is approved.

1. Sign in to Google Groups.
2. Click the name of a group.
3. On the left, go to Group settings, then select Email options.
4. In the Auto replies section, check the box next to the reply that you want to enable, then enter your message. You can set up separate auto replies for internal member, external members, and non-members.
5. Click Save Changes.

Google Groups has a default limit of 50 users per group. If you need to include additional users in your group, please send an email to help@brandeis.edu with the name of your Group and the list of email addresses and the list of email addresses you would like added. An ITS staff member would be happy to help you with your request.

The owner or manager of a Brandeis Google Group must first enable the setting that allows external members to join. The setting is located within the Google Group's general setting.

This is part of the Google Groups design. External users can receive only those emails coming into and going out from the Google Group.

Google Groups offers a more modern, reliable and secure platform for managing our email lists. Listserv lists sat on servers that had reached their "end of life" and were no longer supported by the vendor for critical security updates. Additionally, Listserv software was out of date and could no longer be used by most of our current browsers (Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and FireFox).

ITS created a Google Group for Listserv lists used since January 2019 on Oct. 18, 2022 — with the Owners, Editors and Members automatically added. Owners and Editors of newly created Google Groups were contacted by email regarding the transition. Older lists, not used since 2018, were not created in Google Groups. However, users had an additional 30-day grace period before the shut down of the servers on Nov. 18, 2022, in which to reference Listserv lists.

Additionally, the Brandeis community was kept informed regarding the transition through multiple InBriefs and on the ITS website.

Unfortunately, Listserv lists are no longer accessible because the Sympa Listserv servers shut down on Nov. 18, 2022. The shutdown of the Listserv lists and servers was part of the planned transition to Google Groups previously communicated to the Brandeis community. Although Listserv lists are no longer available, you can create an email list using Google Groups — a more modern and secure platform for mailing lists.