KU Groups - Information and Management

Summary

Groups Tool is used to manage access to different KU resources. Users can find this tool by going to https://groups.ku.edu.

Looking for a new group? Please review our documentation to determine which group is better suited for your needs. https://technology.ku.edu/catalog/distribution-lists

Course Group Lists
Mailman List
Non Course Group Lists

Group Roles & Definitions

Role Name	Definition
Authorized Sender	An authorized sender limits who can send email to a specific group.
Group Maintainer	These users control who should or should not be a group member. These users have the ability to remove members, and or add / remove other maintainers. Group Maintainers do not get access to the specified resource by default. If a maintainer needs access to the resource. They must add themselves as a member to get access to that specific resource.
Group Members	Group members are the individuals that make up the group's population. This is the most restrictive role, however, this role is the reason for a Group. When a Group is used for permissions (such as an _smbx Group) only the members obtain the access rights, no other role will provide this.
Group Moderator	In most cases, a Group Moderator is not needed. If there is an assigned Group Moderator(s) for a group, then all emails sent to the group will go to the Group Moderator first. The Group Moderator will have the ability to approve the email to be distributed to all Group Members.
Group Viewer	An assigned Group Viewer can view the membership of the group – even if the membership of the group is Hidden.
Hidden	This refers to a group's membership. If a group's membership is hidden, this means that users of the group will not be able to determine who is a member of the group. The exception is the Group Maintainer and Group Viewer who will be able to see the group members of a hidden membership group. If a group could be used to determine if a student is in a particular class, major, school etc, then the group needs to have hidden membership.
Listed/Unlisted	This refers to a mail-enabled groups being displayed in the Global Address List. If a group is listed, this means that the group can be found in the Global Address List. If a group is unlisted, then the group will not be displayed in the Global Address List.
Primary Contact	The Primary Contact for a group will be used as the first person to contact if a question or problem occurs with a group. The Primary Contact is required so that IT will be able to determine who to contact. The Primary Contact and Group Maintainer can be the same person.
Secondary Contact	The Secondary Contact for a group will be used as the second person to contact if a question or problem occurs with a group. The Secondary Contact is required so that IT will be able to determine who to contact if a Primary Contact is not available to answer questions or make decisions for a group.

Adding/Removing Member(s) - Non Course Groups

You will need the role of Group Maintainer in the group you wish to make changes to. Once a user is added, or removed from a group, it can take up to 2 hours before access to granted to a user. Maintainers must also be a member of the group to gain access to those resources. User can add both KU Lawrence and KUMC accounts to groups.

Go to https://groups.ku.ed u
- You may be required to login first.
Select the group you wish to manage.
- You can use the filter (on the right) to help narrow your search down.

Proceed to the Adding or Removing panel below for specific instructions.

Adding

Select Add Member.
Enter users online ID or Name as shown in Outlook and click the Add Button.
Followed by clicking Submit.

Removing

Locate the user in the list to be removed.
- You can use the filter to narrow your search.
Click Red Trashcan Button next to the user.
Click Yes to confirm your requested changes.

Adding/Removing Group Maintainer(s) - Non Course Groups

You will need the role of Group Maintainer in the group you wish to modify.

Go to https://groups.ku.ed u.
- You may be required to login first.
Select the group you wish to manage.
- You can use the filter (on the right) to help narrow your search down.

Add Maintainers

After opening the group Select the blue Edit the group maintainers text.
Select the blue Add Maintainers box.
Populate the text box with the individual you wish to add to the group and select the blue Add button. You can search using First name, Last name or Last name, First name or KUOnlineID.
Once you have added all desired members, select Submit.

Remove Maintainers

After opening the group Select the blue Edit the group maintainers text.
Click the Trash Can next to the maintainer from the group you wish to remove.
Click Yes to confirm removal.

Group Calendars

Occasionally, users request a group solely to use its calendar. Simply granting access to a group calendar through Outlook is not sufficient. To access the calendar, users must also be members of the group.

Course Groups

To create a course group for an academic class. The instructor of record will need to go to https://myidentity.ku.edu/groups/courses to start this process.

If no courses are shown for the selected terms. Please select the correct term followed by look up.

Select one or multiple courses to create a course group. Click Next.
Confirm the information displayed on screen and click Submit.
Email Authorization:
Special - Only Instructor of Record can send emails to this group.
Closed - Everyone in the group can send emails.

Now your group is created and will be ready for use within the next two hours.
Here the instructor of record can take the following action(s):
Add / Remove Maintainers: This gives users permissions to modify members of course groups.
Viewers: Allows users to see who is in the course group.
Moderators: Allows users to moderate emails through an approve to send or deny sending a message to the group.
Authorized Senders: Permits specific users ability to email a specific group.
Add Member: Allows you to add students or users to the course group. Please see Adding/Removing Member(s) - Non Course Groups panel above for specific instructions on how to complete this.

Article Changelog

4/22/2026

All article image alt-text updated.

1/25/2026

Article updated to basic visual standard.

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