My e-mail address is: l.trueblood[at]surrey.ac.uk.

Given the centrality of e-mail to academic life, I thought it would be kind to clarify how I use it to support my teaching, research, administrative, and personal responsibilities.

Thank you for your help in keeping my attention on my highest priorities. If there are actions I can take to similarly support you, I hope you won’t hesitate to let me know.  

For Colleagues.

·From late May to early February, when I am not teaching, I prioritise research. While I check e-mail every day, I am unable to check e-mail before noon, or after 3:45. I do not check e-mail on the evenings or weekends.

· I do not open Microsoft Teams unless I have a specific meeting. Please do not call or message me on Teams without scheduling this in advance.

· If I am unable to respond to an e-mail within two days, my out of office will be on. Alternative contacts for my various responsibilities will be clearly signposted.

· I do not have a smartphone, so I won’t receive messages such as ‘I’m late for a meeting’ or ‘I need to cancel the meeting’ etc. This is no problem, though, as I’ll then just have a snack and go for a walk.

· Outlook is not exhaustive of my commitments. If you’d like to schedule a meeting, though, please don’t hesitate to write to me. I’ll look forward to seeing you.

·I try to keep most e-mails to five sentences or fewer. This is, at best, a work in progress.  

For Students (as also outlined on Surreylearn).

· I welcome and value hearing from students. I am very happy to meet students throughout the academic year. Students can book an academic, or personal tutor meeting, by writing to me at any time. I’m very happy to meet online if that is more convenient.

·If a meeting with undergraduate or postgraduate students is scheduled to discuss written work, please share the written work with me two working days in advance.

· For questions related to individual academic or welfare circumstances, please do not hesitate to write to me directly.

· For questions which apply to other students, such as ‘what does X mean in the law?’ or ‘will Y be on the exam?’ please ask these questions in the Surreylearn discussion forums. When questions are asked by e-mail, in fairness to everyone, I will only reply via Surreylearn (posting the question anonymously, as well as my reply there.)

For UKCLA Contributors.

· If you are a contributor to the UCKLA blog, it is important to note that all posts are peer-reviewed by two of the three editors listed here. Please send all posts to all three editors. I’ll look forward to reading your submission.

· We aim for a two-day turnaround time (not inclusive of weekends) but this is not always possible. If the editorial team thinks the review process will take longer than two days, we will let you know.

· In the unlikely event you haven’t heard back from a member of the team within two working days, please do follow up, writing to the entire team.

Note.

·These protocols were inspired by those used by the kind and brilliant Dean Knight. Thank you, Dean.