Skip to Main Content

Marketing & Communications Division of Student Affairs

Support Page Content

Hornet Weekly Division Coordinators Guide

Updated August 2026.

This page is intended for Sacramento State staff who are designated as Hornet Weekly Division Coordinators (editors). All others may disregard.

Introduction

Welcome to Hornet Weekly! We’re happy to partner with you. As a Hornet Weekly Division Coordinator (DC), you will receive and process Hornet Weekly submissions for your department/division each week during the academic year.

Faculty and staff submit items via our SharePoint submission form and the Trumba events calendar.

In SharePoint, submitters select the appropriate division from a dropdown menu on the submission form, and their responses go to your selected inbox. As a DC, you will then participate in an approval process that involves light editing and approving or rejecting submissions.

If rejected, you may inform the submitter as to what changes are needed or whether the item may be resubmitted (if within the deadline period).

Once approved, submissions are received by the Hornet Weekly Editor to compile and publish as an email newsletter, for display in the MySacState student portal and on a dedicated webpage.

A separate approval process via Trumba is utilized for event submissions.

Events are submitted by faculty and staff using custom sub-calendars under the Main Hornet Weekly Trumba Events Calendar, and you will receive notifications in your selected inbox. From there, you may revise and approve events for inclusion in Hornet Weekly.

It is your responsibility to ensure all submissions appeal to a general, wide audience of currently enrolled students.

IMPORTANT: While HW aims to reduce the number of emails sent to students, it is not intended to replace targeted emails sent to sub-populations via SacSend or other platforms. Those communications should be handled via your department/division process.

The step-by-step guide on this page provides best practices for completing this task each week, along with pro tips and important information. Please also utilize the Hornet Weekly Style Guide.

Have questions or need help? Email the Hornet Weekly Editor.

Process Overview and Deadlines

  • Hornet Weekly is sent to all currently enrolled students each Tuesday during the academic year. Hornet Weekly is not sent during summer or winter break and is sent the following business day if a campus closure occurs on a Tuesday.
  • Submissions are due no later than 1 p.m. on Thursday before each send date.
  • Submission approvals are due to the Hornet Weekly Editor no later than 1 p.m. on Friday before each send date.
  • Important: Submissions are not accepted beyond the deadlines due to the way the system is currently set up. Please plan accordingly.

Categories

There are four main categories in HW.

If you’re unsure which category is appropriate for a submission you receive or an item you plan to submit, please reach out to the Hornet Weekly Editor.

    1. News and Announcements: Need-to-know information affecting all or most students, including deadlines, policy changes/notices, career opportunities, scholarships, and more.
    2. Know Your Resources: Information on new, existing or updated tools, and resources available to students.
    3. Events: Campus events that welcome a general student audience.
    4. Grad Corner: A dedicated section for news, announcements, and resources just for students currently enrolled in graduate and credential programs. Managed by Academic Affairs Graduate Studies. This section also includes its own events section for events specific to this group.

Time Management Tips

  • Depending on how many items you receive, we recommend giving yourself ample time for submission approvals each week.
  • Most submissions arrive on Thursdays, but some arrive earlier in the week. If you’re able, process as they arrive in case you need to reject and have submitters revise and resubmit. This will give them time to do so.
  • You’ll have time between the Thursday submission deadline and Friday approval deadline, but plan carefully around your other tasks.
  • IMPORTANT: Submissions and approvals received after the deadlines, even if they are resubmissions, WILL NOT be included in Hornet Weekly. No exceptions.

Preparation

  1. Keeping in Contact: A dedicated Microsoft Teams chat helps keep the team up-to-date and in communication. Be sure to engage with this chat to stay connected. If you need to be added (or removed), contact the HW Editor.
  2. Keeping Track: It is recommended (but not required) to utilize an Excel spreadsheet or Word doc to keep track of submissions, notes or anything else that will help you stay organized.
    1. Pro Tip: This is especially helpful to track how many times items have run, how recently they’ve run, etc., and for divisional/departmental tracking in terms of which areas are and aren’t submitting, etc., if you want to follow up with areas that should be submitting but aren’t.

Keeping Your Inbox Organized

  • We recommend keeping track of your progress within your inbox. You can do this how you like, but our suggested method is:
    • If using your own work email instead of a shared inbox in your department/division, you may want to set up an Outlook rule to automatically move all the submissions to a dedicated folder, so you don’t miss anything and they don’t drive you crazy.
    • If using a shared inbox, you may still want to create folders or organize notification types (SharePoint vs. Trumba) into separate folders.
    • After editing each item in SharePoint, head back to your inbox to Approve or Reject, mark the notification email as read and flag it/check off flag, categorize it (see below), move to a “done” folder, or follow whatever organization process makes sense to you.
    • Keep in mind that if you reject an item back to the submitter for changes, the new submission will trigger a new notification email, so it’s best to Reject > delete the email or move it to a “Rejected” folder.
  • Categorize: After processing all submissions, mark all emails for that week with a color and phrase using the “categorize” option (Example: week 1 = green, week 2 = pink, etc.) so you know with which week emails are associated. Set five colors, one for each week of the month (including occasional fifth week).
    • Pro Tip: Not only does this help keep you organized, if you ever need to find an email from an earlier week for any reason, this makes it much easier!

SharePoint: Editing, Approving & Rejecting Submissions

SharePoint is used for News & Announcements, Know Your Resources and non-event Grad Corner submissions. For Events, see next section. Submission will send you notifications via email.

Before approving submissions, you will want to do some light copy editing. Once the item is good to go, you may APPROVE.

IMPORTANT: Your goal is not to rewrite submissions! If rewriting is required, you may REJECT the item and ask for resubmission. You can note upon rejection what needs to be addressed. If something is unclear to you, it will be unclear to students!

STYLE: Hornet Weekly style is based on Sac State Style and/or CSU style. For formatting and style specific to HW, see the Hornet Weekly Style Guide.

How to Revise, Approve and Reject SharePoint-Submitted Items

  1. Submissions will come into your email inbox from “Microsoft Power Automate.”
  2. Click into the email and you’ll be able to see the submission time and submitter name.
  3. Click the link next to the word “Link” to head to SharePoint and edit the submission.
  4. To edit, click “Edit all” at the top of the form.
  5. Here, you’ll be able to change/revise the following:
    1. Item type (in case it was filed incorrectly or you think a different section is more appropriate)
      1. Note: If you think an item is more appropriate as an event, REJECT the item and ask the submitter to resubmit via Trumba (or you may do so yourself).
    2. Division/department – please refrain from changing this as altering this will assign it to a different DC (if something is submitted to you by mistake, please reject and let the submitter know)
    3. Heading – Edit as you see fit in accordance with the HW Style Guide. Note: Headlines are bolded automatically when they’re sent to the HW Editor.
    4. Body – Edit as you see fit in accordance with the HW Style Guide.
    5. Submitted by – Edit as you see fit in accordance with the HW Style Guide. Note: Submitted by lines are italicized automatically when they’re sent to the HW Editor.
    6. Publish date – please do not change unless you intend for the item to run a different week. Note: If you need a date that isn’t listed, contact the HW Editor.
  6. IMPORTANT: When you’re done editing, DO NOT click “Save” at the top of the form. It does NOT work and will give you an error message. You need to click “SUBMIT” at the bottom of the form.
  7. From here, you can see a list of all the submissions you’ve received or submitted yourself and they can be edited further unless already approved.
  8. Approval: Once ready to approve, GO BACK TO THE EMAIL NOTIFICATION for the item you want to approve and click “Approve.” Note: You will be able to add a note. This can simply be “Approved. Thanks.” Or you may use whatever message you’d like to use.
  9. Reject: If the item is not appropriate for Hornet Weekly, needs to be submitted for a future date or needs major revisions, REJECT the item using the “Reject” button in the email and add a note as to what is needed. Note: Your rejection note should be detailed and specific as to why it’s being rejected and any instructions you have for the submitter.
  10. IMPORTANT: There is a way within SharePoint to Approve/Reject. Please DO NOT use this method as it will not work properly and will cause issues. ALL Approvals/Rejections MUST be made within each email notification.
  11. Repeat the process for each SharePoint submission.

Once all items are approved (including any resubmissions), you are finished with the SharePoint portion of your Hornet Weekly duties for the week!

Trumba: Processing Events

Each division/department has a dedicated Hornet Weekly Sub-Calendar, which feed into the Main Hornet Weekly Trumba Event Calendar. To access the submission links and public calendars, visit the Trumba Submission Forms section of the Hornet Weekly webpage.

To submit Events, a submitter visits their department/division’s Hornet Weekly sub-calendar, selects the Submit Event button or uses the direct Submission Form link for their appropriate calendar, and completes the event submission form for each event they wish to submit.

  1. Before working with Trumba, please login to the account where you receive HW submissions using THIS LINK. Do not login from the prompt you’re shown when clicking into a submission from the notification email. See next section for more on logging in to Trumba.
    1. IMPORTANT: If you use a shared account to access Trumba as an editor and you also use your personal work account to submit items, you may need to log in and process items in incognito mode or in a browser other than your default browser.
  2. Once the Event is submitted, the appropriate Division Coordinator receives an email notification with the event details.
  3. Click the TITLE of the event in the email to view the submitted Event in your department/division’s Submitted Calendar Editing dashboard in Trumba.
    1. IMPORTANT: If you are logged in using incognito or a browser that is not your default browser, you may need to right-click the title and click copy link and then paste the link into a browser tab where you are logged in.
  4. Review each event and make any necessary revisions to the required fields for HW (Title, When, Event Type, Location (if applicable), and Short (Hornet Weekly) Description).
    1. Note: Because Hornet Weekly will add a link to the full listing for each event, it’s best to revise and review every field to ensure the event is properly submitted, accurate and clear.
  5. Approval: Navigate to the dropdown toward the top labeled “Owning Calendar” and change the calendar name from your department/division’s “Submitted sub-calendar” to your department/division’s “sub-calendar,” and click on "OK" toward the top.
    1. Example: Student Affairs would change from “Hornet Weekly > Hornet Weekly Student Affairs Submitted” to “Hornet Weekly > Hornet Weekly Student Affairs.”
  6. This publishes the approved Event to the main Hornet Weekly Calendar and moves it along the process to the Hornet Weekly Editor for inclusion in HW.
    1. Pro Tip: Go back to your inbox and find the notification for each approved Event’s submission and flag it/categorize it to stay organized.
  7. Rejection: If you wish for an event to NOT appear in that week’s Hornet Weekly, you may delete the submission using the “Delete Event” button at the bottom of the editing screen.
    1. Alternatively, you may choose to not delete and just keep the event on the “submitted” Owning Calendar. This would allow you to keep it for your records or revise it and change the date later.
    2. Pro Tip: If you’d like, before deleting an event, you can scroll down and find the submitter’s email address under “Event Edit Details,” if you want to email them to let them know it's been rejected.
  8. Repeat for each Event submission.

Once all events you wish to appear in Hornet Weekly have been moved to the Main Hornet Weekly Trumba Events Calendar, you are finished processing Events items for that week’s edition!

Trumba Login Instructions

If you have a new Trumba account, you should have received a verification email. Please click on the verification link once. You may see a "success" message and the screen will prompt you to log in. DO NOT LOG IN FROM THIS SCREEN.

If you have an existing Trumba account, verification is not needed.

  • Enter your email credentials associated with your Trumba account (If unsure, reach out to Portia Stewart)
  • To view event submissions, navigate to the Submitted sub calendar
    • Example:
      • Hornet Weekly
      • + Hornet Weekly Academic Affairs Grad
      • Select Submitted

CRITICAL NOTE

With Hornet Weekly going out to over 30,000 students each week, we CANNOT re-send HW for ANY reason.

BEFORE approving your submissions both in SharePoint and Trumba, EVERY item MUST BE accurate, edited, and READY for publication. Treat it as if item approval = published.

If you need help with any item AFTER submitting, contact the Hornet Weekly Editor ASAP. There are NO GUARANTEES we can fix or remove items before publication.