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I have been on this great campus we call Milligan College for two years now. In those two years, I have seen more e-mails in my inbox than I ever received in my 18 years before I came to Milligan. Now, I know most of those years don’t count, seeing as I was unable to receive e-mail during my more formable years, but I think the point still carries through.
While my Milligan e-mail account has seen such providential information as health tips on the clarity of my urine and the topic of this week’s Vespers sermon, there also comes in a plethora of useless, time-wasting material.
It confuses me every time read about a lost item in my e-mail. It was my assumption that Milligan had a Lost and Found department in the registrar’s office. Obviously, someone is getting paid to watch over our lost things--we might as well let them do their job.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I love intercampus e-mail. But does every little thing have to appear in my inbox? The most notable subjects are petty fights that break out and are publicized to the entire campus. These are even better if they are staged. (I, of course, here reference the Potter v. Hooker debates).
Milligan College’s e-mail accounts are given to students as a way to keep the campus united and informed. Faculty and administrators use intercampus e-mail to inform us of class scheduling changes, campus events and other important information.
To me, at least, it seems the use of “mass e-mails” has become a plague to rival the plagues of frogs and locusts. Students send mass e-mails for the most pointless things, and I, for one, see this as breaking one of the core guidelines for computer use, as prescribed in the Milligan College Handbook, that unending source of knowledge.
And I quote, “Expressly forbidden are: Using mail or messaging services to harass, offend, or intimidate another person, for example, by broadcasting unsolicited messages, by repeatedly sending unwanted mail, or by using someone else's name or user id.”
Notice the “unsolicited messages” part as well as the “unwanted mail.”
Use the school e-mail accounts for what they were intended for: informing the Milligan community. In the case where someone needs to express his or her opinion, may I suggest a Letter to the Editor? I think that’s the right forum to do so.