The exciting process of getting admitted into SMU becomesofficial when students are issued certain items. There is, ofcourse, the packet containing a student planner, fire coderegulation pamphlets, and the really cool blue and red keychains.
But the most important item that all students are assigned isundoubtedly the SMU e-mail account. This will be whereall-important communication between students and the administrationwill take place. The true magnitude of the Webmail service can beseen once the school year gets underway.
This account becomes bombarded daily with numerous messages fromthe administration and school organizations. It seems that everygroup on campus has exciting functions that they want to invitestudents to. With today’s “paperless” society,all these invitations and announcements end up in our e-mailaccounts. At first, the e-mails might be fun to receive, butstudents will soon begin to get tired of these usuallyinsignificant correspondences.
The constant e-mails begin taking a toll on most students, whosoon begin to ignore them because they typically don’tpertain to them. Frankly, most students do not care that thesidewalk next to Sorority Row will be closed on Friday. Simplyflooding mailboxes with unwanted e-mails eventually starts to workagainst the university. If students repetitively get into the habitof disregarding the e-mails, they might fail to notice an importantannouncement.
E-mail is a very useful medium for communication, and the use ofe-mail should be congruent with what is important for students toknow. Some of the mass e-mails that SMU currently sends out wastesthe time of the students who are forced to scan through the e-mailand delete it.
The method of which these e-mails are sent out needs to bealtered. The bulk e-mailing categories need to be narrowed down tovery specific groups, to include not only faculty or staff specifice-mails, but also for each undergraduate class, and each graduateschool.
These bulk e-mails should allow for communication of importantinformation that is of interest to a particular portion of the SMUcommunity. Highly crucial information including registration orgraduation information should be directed to the main inbox.
However, messages concerning traditions, announcements,campus-wide construction notices and safety bulletins should beposted on a message-board where students and faculty can glancethrough for information pertaining to them.
While an event may be really interesting and exciting, sendingout a mass e-mail may not always be the most effective way tocommunicate to the entire campus.
