Google Groups at PSU

Owned by Alex Sanchez
Last updated: Dec 10, 2024
3 min read

Google Groups can provide you with an easy way to manage access control and mailing lists in Google Workspace applications.

Faculty are encouraged to use the automatic Google Groups created for every class when they need to send announcements to students. For more information on using these automatically created groups, reference Google Groups for Classes.

Table of Contents

Create or Delete Google Groups

You can request a new Google Group, or changes to an existing Google Group, by submitting a request to Create or Manage a Google Group.

  • All group email addresses will end with a common -group@pdx.edu suffix.

  • When a Group is no longer needed, its owner or manager should request its deletion.

  • Excessive group creation may be subject to review by OIT.

Use Google Groups

Once a group is created, you can use it with many of the applications managed by Google. For example, you can:

  • Share a Google Drive file or folder to all members of a group.

  • Invite all members of a group to a meeting.

  • Send emails to all members of a group.

To manage a Google Group, navigate to groups.pdx.edu and sign in using your Odin account credentials. A list of the groups that you belong to will be listed in My Groups. The "Manage" option is displayed next to each group you manage. Select that link to access the Management Tasks. From here, you can:

  • Review and adjust the group’s configuration settings.

  • Invite new members. You can invite people by entering one email at a time from people you have emailed, or you can copy emails in directly from a spreadsheet or existing account.

Additional Groups Guidelines

  • OIT reserves the right to rename, disable, delete, or modify settings of groups at their discretion.

  • Google Group owners, managers and participants must adhere to PSU's Acceptable Use Policy.

  • Vulgarities will be handled with disciplinary repercussions and outcomes.

  • Listing in the PSU Google Groups Directory is subject to approval.

Add Non-PSU Accounts to Groups

To enable membership in your Google Group for individuals without PSU email addresses, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to groups.pdx.edu.

  2. Select My groups from the left-hand menu,

If you do not see your PSU groups, you might be looking at groups from a different organization. Navigate to My Groups while logged in with your pdx.edu email to access a list of your PSU groups.

  1. Select your group from the list of groups that appear in the center of your page.

  2. Select Group Settings from the left-hand menu.

  3. Under General and Allow external members, select the Yes radio button and adjust the following preferences as needed:

    • Who can view conversations

    • Who can post

    • Who can view members

  4. Select Save changes below. You can now add non-pdx.edu email addresses to the group membership.

Be careful to not share any sensitive data with groups that allow non-PSU member access. You should consider informing people as you add them that the group’s membership includes non-campus addresses. Refer to PSU’s Acceptable Use Policy and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) for more information on the appropriateness and legality of such information access.

Membership and Messaging Limits

There is no limit to number of members a group can have. However, Google has strict policies on spam, and in public groups they do limit the number of addresses that can be added at a time, to prevent the possibility of spam groups. To learn more about these limits, refer to Google’s Understand Group Policies and Limits support web page.

Google also requires that you send a welcome message when direct adding non-pdx.edu accounts. This is a feature intended to reduce spamming behavior.