Mass update project request status without triggering notifications

Hello,

We have an area of the University that has traditionally leveraged the Portfolio Planning application to solicit project requests, but have never gone through the process of formally approving or rejecting the request.  We have now worked with them to appropriately status requests and convert them to projects to be managed moving forward.  My question is related to the requests from the last several years that have been managed outside of TD, with an open request in Portfolio Planning.  Is there any way that I can update these requests without triggering a notification to the requestor - ideally in bulk as there are a few hundred, but I can resign myself to individual updates).  My concern is if I "approve" a request from four years ago (that may have been completed four years ago), the requestor will be notified and will be very confused as to why this is now being approved.

Is this something that can be done via api, emphasizing that the notification should be suppressed.

Thanks for your help.

Bill