Monday, April 26, 2010

All Student Email

Let's talk about All Student Emails!

I think we can all agree that there are just not enough of these. I am constantly hitting refresh on gmail, waiting for more emails to consume, and just not being satiated by the dozens of all student emails I get daily. We should try to up it to around 100 a day. New all student email ideas:
  • Has anyone seen my car keys/one card?
  • hey does anyone know the name of that guy I was making out with last night?
  • yo check out this youtube video
  • crazy pianos club emails
  • yo what is the great room like tonight, worth going or should I just eat cheese-itz
Okay but seriously, let us discuss serious aspects to this.

On Friday Sush sent out an email about a picnic thing at the PaxRiver museum of army airplane things. I don't really know why because it cost like 15$, and that is nearly 1.5 handles of Rikaloff; my point being that it doesn't seem like a great value compared to the amount of Rikaloff you could buy for that amount.

So then Rogachevsky dude (what a cool name) responded to the all student email (which according to faculty, this happens a lot with all faculty emails, and it's really obnoxious) expressed his opinion that it's dumb to have a picnic at a place that glorifies/commemorates weapons of mass destruction. I think it's kinda dumb to send out an email like that, but it's cool that he is that committed to his values I guess?

So then Aaron Guffey (student, in charge of college repubs or somesuch) responds and is just a huge ass to this dude. I think that Rogachevsky (I wish this was my name) had a fair point calling the planes WMDs because ultimately even a drone can/will lead to the deaths of people usually.

I mean, I guess he didn't have to be mean and say that he was being 'asinine', just making your point would have been sufficient.

Okay this is a really long post but I have other things to discuss maybe. Like this email today from Binta D about volunteering for 'Spring Festival' for the Holy Faith Church (cool name bro) up at the fairgrounds. I don't think this is something that should be advertised in all student emails, because it has nothing to do with the school or students, it's just looking for volunteers for an outside event. But what do you guys think?

Also I really dislike All Student Email THAT ARE IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS but that is just a pet peeve really.

Also I heard once that a decade ago, when all student email was introduced, everyone had it and it caused massive PANIC and absurdity. I think we should go back to that/stop giving club leaders all student email access. Maybe criteria should be more like if your club has a reason to send out a lot of emails (like Habitat) or if you have a job/student position that requires you to send out a fair amount of emails (some SGA positions, and like IE or Admissions jobs). I dunno though.

Leave thoughts in the comments.

20 comments:

  1. kenben, out of the list you made for suggested topics in all-student email, the ones i really liked were:

    - Has anyone seen my car keys/one card?
    - hey does anyone know the name of that guy I was making out with last night?
    - yo what is the great room like tonight, worth going or should I just eat cheese-itz

    these are important questions that we all need answers to sometimes.

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  2. Someone should really write some legislation taking a stance against the excessive use of capital letters.

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  3. Admittedly, it's an odd place to have a picnic. I didn't even read the email until this, like all other all student emails.

    Inarticulate or not, Guffey's response doesn't bother me, though oddly I agree with Rogachevsky's sentiment. Our campus is nauseatingly homogenous and it's nice to see a counter-point occasionally. If something like this upsets you then this school has given you a shelter rather than an education.

    Let me guess that Rogachevsky is tenured?

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  4. Wait, are you saying that something like this upsets me, or are you referring to someone else? I wasn't upset over it, I was just lollin over the drama.

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  5. isn't it actually the "holy face" carnival? which makes it even better. also, i went once and they gave me literature on chastity. i heart irony.

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  6. holy face carnival, what?

    And why/how is that ironic, I don't really know what the group is and stuff.

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  7. I was actually awaiting Rogachevsky's rebuttal. In fact, I was looking forward to it all night at work. Think what you want, I know I am nerdy--but I was really hoping for an articulate smackdown. And I was also kind of blown away by his courage--I also wondered whether he has tenure?

    "Our campus is nauseatingly homogenous and it's nice to see a counter-point occasionally."

    If there's a majority here, I think it's those who may align themselves with Rogachevsky. The young Republican (whatever his name was) is probably in the minority, and I think that needs to be emphasized. Is it a good thing that Rogachevsky feels safe enough to express that worry through an all student email? And is his say just as important as the young Republican's? We may be homogenous, but I think we can homogenously agree that the "counter-point" to the generalized SMCM political leanings is not Rogachevsky's--but Guffey's.
    AND, if we must practice what we preach--the Young Republican's say (despite my reluctance to grant it) is just as valid as Roga's. (Pardon my liberties with his bad ass name.)

    Ken--I think you're pretty in tune with the student body. What do you make of this?

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  8. Also, for the love of God....I don't want to hear about anymore lost Camel Packs, keychains, fedoras, waterbottles, ribbon dancers, potted flowers, stuffed pet g(l)oats, hookah nozzles, doormats, birdbaths....continue absurd Whitmanian catalog of lost things....

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  9. I think emails about outside events that have nothing to do with the college should not be allowed to be sent around as an all student email. They have the bulletin for events like those. They also have a lost and found section on the bulletin that I think should be used instead of sending out all student emails, although it doesn't look like it is currently being used... And of course emails in all caps with multiple punctuation marks are just dumb and get auto-deleted.

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  10. I propose a great solution to the problem of getting all student e-mails...

    Wait 48 hours and do not delete anything. Due to the massive amounts of email we all get and the nonexistent starage space we are alloted you will stop getting emails all together? Are any of them important really?

    Also another motivation for sending all student emails should be to support the
    nuking of gay baby seals for christ, just sayin

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  11. @Kelly I think that anon was saying that the school is homogeneously liberal, and that he was glad to see a counter-point like young repub/Guffey's. I mean I don't think either are valid in responding to an all student email like that, it's not really the point of such things, but I do agree that both have the right to express their opinions and such. Or something.

    Um as I recall (had been drinking a bit by the time I saw these emails) a lot of people on facebook were pro-Rogachevsky, and some were pro-Guffey (fewer obv, this is a liberal arts college). Everyone agreed that both were pretty ballsy and kinda out of line (this isn't really the purpose of all student emails). Some people felt that this may be a serious blow against all student emails, and may result in some reform.

    The campus is pretty liberal, but maybe not Rogachevsky liberal. I think a good portion (silent majority lol) didn't see a huge issue with the event.

    @anon fucking <3 u, explain the Walt Whitman reference, dunno if I remember much of his writing. And what is a ribbon dancer?

    @Maddy it would be great if bulletin got replaced by something like a SMCM craigslist. Especially if it had a crazy personals section.

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  12. I sent that email to all my relatives. I am pro-more lols.

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  13. I was thinking of those crazy long glitzy ribbons used by seven year old girls to twirl their names in the air...as seen on Nickelodian infomercials, and advocated by Frank the Tank (Old School). I do not recall an all student email to recover one of these--I just thought it was funny.

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  14. @Ken@Maddy@Ken? (Confusing...)
    "Maddy it would be great if bulletin got replaced by something like a SMCM craigslist. Especially if it had a crazy personals section."

    "SF seeking ribbon dancing male. Must love children, animals, Keystone Light, and ribbon dancing naked on the greens."

    And I'm done...dammit Ken Benjes for providing such a fun forum for procrastination.

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  15. I think everyone should have it and there shouldn't be restrictions on how to use it, except things that are illegal like threats and libel. This system could work best if emails could be tagged with categories and everyone had folders set up.

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  16. all student email for everyone would be an amazing thing... and Rogachevsky has a great fucking point: why is our school holding an event at a place that commemorates vehicles of death? It's odd enough that were located from Pax River, but things like this and the recent Forum on Civil Defense hosted by Pax River and the Center for the Study of democracy are just backwards. Since when is democracy colonial wars all over the world? Michael Caine obviously has his head up his ass...

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  17. I'm all for open discourse, but Guffey was an asshole for calling Rogachevsky "asinine" and missing the point that planes, like those military planes enshrined in that museum, are used as instruments of war.

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  18. I second the motion that there should be some SGA legislation about this issue :D

    Also, people need to stop sending out emails when they lose things. And anyone with allstudent access needs to realize that this is (I'm pretty sure) against the email policy and stop sending them for other people.

    The Student Activites website is a really great place to check out upcoming events, and a lot of this email problem could be solved if we used that instead of relying on all campus emails. Maybe it could also be a forum for Lost and Found?

    AND MAYBE PEOPLE WOULD USE THE WEBSITE MORE IF IT DIDN'T LOOK LIKE IT WAS DESIGNED IN 1997!

    But that's a whole other issue...

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  19. No one should have all student access expect SafeRide. That would make my life and increase the fun of drunk rides back from the bar...imagine the quotes!!!

    Anyways, Marlena is right. Though I think the website looks legit. That might make it obvious that I am not, in fact, an website designer.

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