Proto Himbo EuropeanOn her way out the door to retirement, a former colleague wanted to make some rules that would apply to everyone but her (because retirement). One was "all student emails must be responded to within 24 hours."
Hell to the Double No.
1/4
First, 24 hours just doesn't always happen for me. I am not great at email. In my (partial) defense, this university insists on
1. preventing any other means of #ElectronicCommunication (e.g., my response time was *much* faster and more reliable before I was prohibited from using a #discord server for each class)
2. flooding that single bottleneck channel of communication with a ton of shit: Holiday theme in the cafeteria! Starbucks is having a promotion! 10% off apparel at the bookstore! Here's a workshop only applicable to 5% of anybody! The president wants to tell you boring things nobody cares about! I'm selling my couch! Flags at half mast! 15 tips for healthy work/life balance! All in the same channel.
Because past presidents bought into Google, there's also no convenient way to flag/emphasize emails I want to see (e.g., from students). Ongoing filtering is a thing (clunky in google, IMO), but just whitelisting a group of emails requires a bunch of repeated work every couple of months and constant vigilance in between. Email is a nightmare for me.
2/4
#email #sucks #google #alsosucks #highered #professor #teacher #teaching
Second (#unpopularOpinion? IDK), not all student emails should get a response. Said colleague got upset when I listed categories like:
- Questions already answered in the #syllabus, in the notes, in the lecture, in an announcement literally 5 minutes ago, in basic university policies, etc.
- Emails with #manipulation, like "I'd hate to have to go over your head, but I really think my grade is unfair. I am an A student and..."
- Repeatedly asking about something already answered (usually wanting points, second/third/twelfth chances, exceptions from course policies, etc.) when the student just didn't like the answer.
- Interesting observations (e.g., "I found a cool website relevant to the course"): very cool, but maybe the interaction has already ended.
- Insults (yes, this has happened)
- Extremely #unprofessional communication like "Yo prof I know u said u don't give out powerpoints but how about i get you any five bootlegged movies you want in mp4 format" (this was sent to me, more or less word for word) or "Hey, toots..." (my ex got an email starting out exactly this way). I suspect female or female-presenting faculty get more of the latter kind of bullshit.
3/4
#email #google #communication #IAmWastingMyLife #insult #highered #professor
Anyway, the colleague in question said something like "I hardly think anyone would receive emails like that" (referring to the insults and unprofessional examples). I think she lost the room at that point--a big deal, since this group enjoys piling on someone who can be labeled as "not supporting students"--because I saw some nods. Other people have received a lot of bullshit emails, too.
The policy was not passed. I may have told my colleagues that, if it were passed, I would comply by creating a copy-paste reply, possibly an automatic reply, that simply said "This acknowledges the receipt of your email."
4/4
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#email #highered #committees #bullshit #communication #hassles #shortStoryLong