An Overview of Emma
Emma is the official email platform used by San José State University to create, send and manage email communications with students, faculty, staff and the community.
Access to and use of the platform is specifically provisioned only to authorized individuals of SJSU’s colleges, divisions and auxiliary units with a valid and clearly-designated need to send email communications to any member of our Spartan community of faculty, staff, or current students. Information Technology (IT) will provision access to Emma for university communicators.
Audiences: To Whom Emails Through Emma Get Sent
Any and all official emails sent to our community of faculty, staff, and current students will now come from the Emma email platform. University updates, college newsletters, the weekly employee newsletter SpartanMessenger, communications to current students, news from our Library and Hammer Theatre Center, and more will all use Emma.
There are only two audience exceptions to this university-wide tool:
- Slate: communications to prospective students and applicants from Enrollment Management teams must go through the Slate customer relationship management (CRM) software product.
- GiveCampus: communications from the Division of University Advancement to alumni and donors must go through this email marketing and donations platform.
The use of any other third-party email platforms for any university entity's communications is not permitted.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is happening with Marketo?
Starting in February 2026, SJSU will be ending its service contract with Adobe Marketo and will transition to using Emma as the official, preferred university email communications platform.
My department uses its own email marketing platform, can we continue?
Emma is the official university-wide email platform for all divisions, colleges, departments and units. Only University Advancement and specific units of Academic Affairs (Enrollment Management, etc.) are permitted use of third-party platforms.
Who is getting access to Emma?
Only designated employees will be provisioned access to the Emma email platform. This is typically authorized faculty, staff, student assistants (when required), or any employee with the authority to conduct communications for an SJSU college, division, department or unit. Information Technology (IT) will contact and provide access to these authorized users.
If I had access to Marketo, would I get access to Emma?
UMC will review all prior users of Marketo and make determinations on access to Emma based on established and legitimate need and authority for individuals to communicate via email for their assigned college or division. Not every prior user of Marketo will automatically get access to Emma. Examples of authorized individuals are marketing or communications specialists, department administrative staff, communicators.
What are the types of users who will get access to Emma?
Only provisioned and trained faculty and staff can send email campaigns through the Emma email platform to any audience segment of the SJSU community. Users in all roles must attend user training before accessing or sending any messages. Any and all email communications sent through Emma will be subject to review by University Marketing and Communications (UMC).
What will happen to templates I made in Marketo?
UMC will create brand-aligned and uniform templates based on a variety of official use cases for email campaigns. UMC will provide additional guidance on which assets may be moved to Emma for use by your specific department. Assets include images, photographs, graphics, headers. In many cases, UMC will design and provide brand-aligned headers for all divisions and colleges and photographs will be available through the official university photo library.
What is the cost of Emma?
There is no cost to colleges and departments who use Emma for official university-related communications.
SJSU maintains an institutional license with Emma and will provision access, through UMC and IT, to authorized users who have a legitimate need to maintain email communications with any part of our SJSU community and who receive training on compliance, brand standards, and familiarity with the platform’s features from UMC and IT.
Do you have additional questions? First, review our SJSU Brand on Emma guide for how to craft email campaigns that support and align with the official SJSU Brand to see if your questions may be answered there.
For technical assistance, contact the IT help desk. For issues with web+UX, submit a request form with UMC.
